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biggerbetterbat · 1 year

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WITH YOU [23] DYING IS EASY

Daryl Dixon x OC!Charlie Reed

Summary: Charlie talks with Beth. Andrea leaves the girl alone and tragedy happens. Daryl gets mad at Charlie.

Warnings: suicide (nothing descriptive), language, agnst with a happy ending

Song: I Found Amber Run

A/N: Hello! I'm editing this chapter with almost no energy. I started my studies again and it's DRAINING me. But here you are, your chapter. I hope you like it - if you do please leave a comment, like and reblog. ENJOY!

"Did Glenn say anything to you?" Maggie asked.

Lori and Charlie were in the kitchen, preparing food for Beth, who was still in a bad condition. Everything was on Maggie's shoulders, so they decided that it would be good to help her even a little.

"Just that it has gotten pretty bad." Charlie shrugged while cutting the cucumber. She was focused on the activity as if her life depended on it.

"He's not the same," Maggie said. "Says he froze. Blames me. Says I got inside his head."

Charlie looked at her with a deadpanned expression, that was expressing her disbelief in her best friend, who was actually like every other guy. Like...after sharing everything with him for those past two or three months, and talking for hours, Charlie really thought that Glenn was the one special guy, a different snowflake, a very rare flower. But no. Glenn was like everyone else, freaking out when things were getting serious. He didn't want to admit that he felt scared, so he just blamed a girl. Men...

But as soon as she thought about him, she realized one slight problem...she was also running away from feelings and when things were getting serious she was looking for a reason to go MIA. Thanks to some higher force, Lori joined the conversation. "He came back. That's what matters."

"Men have to do certain things, you know that." Charlie nodded as she was cutting a cucumber. "And they're either gonna blame the little woman as the reason they do them or the reason they don't."

"I'll tell you something," said Grimes, who was preparing the meat. She had the most experience with men and Charlie didn't mean her romance with Shane, but rather the marriage that lasted more than eleven years. "What happens out there, happens out there. And we...We're just trying to keep it together till they get back."

"Things were good. Maybe I-"

"Glenn's a big boy." Lori cut her off.

"He makes his own choices, and then you..." Charlie looked at her again. "Do you have anything to apologize for?" she asked and to answer her question Maggie just shook her head. "Tell him to man up and pull himself together."

"Just don't say man up," said Lori. "It never goes well."

Greene smiled gratefully and nodded her head. "Let me just get this to Beth."

"You go on." Lori stopped her. "I got it."

"Yeah. Put him in his place." Charlie said. "I'll clean up."

She knocked on the door, signaling that she wanted to come in. She proposed that Lori should rest and not walk around with plates and food, because Charlie could do it as well- that wasn't beyond her abilities. She entered the room and saw Beth sitting on a bed, then she looked at the untouched food.

"Didn't eat a thing, huh? You're gonna..." she said but saw wet traces on the younger girl's cheeks, so she kneeled next to a bed. "Hey. I know how hard it is. I tried for days to reach my mom and get her on the phone. I can only assume..."

"It's just so pointless."

"You have Maggie, and your father, and Patricia and Jimmy. And you've gotta stay strong for them." Charlie tried to convince her. "I wish I could promise you it would be all right in the end. But we can try..."

"You don't believe it." Beth cut her off.

"What?

"You don't believe in those words," she said. "I heard your conversation with Glenn. You want to die."

Charlie looked down and sat down on a bed instead of kneeling, suspecting that the conversation with Beth would be longer.

"I'm right," Beth said. "You want to end this just like me and yet you came here and tried to convince me not to?"

"I want to die." Charlie voiced those words for the first time. "I lost my whole family, Beth. I live with guilt for that. There's nothing for me out there. But you are different. You're sixteen! You have a boyfriend. You have never even had your first drink yet!"

Beth looked at her with sad eyes. "And you don't want to wait and see if there's something for you?"

"I still don't know it." she shook her head. "But you should live and make now better."

"Thank you." the blonde girl whispered.

"I'll be right back." Charlie smiled and got up. "I heard Lori promised you a walk."

She entered the kitchen, still thinking about Beth and how she just stated the fact that they were the same, it was obvious to her. Charlie started to wonder if any other person could see the same thing... Maybe Charlie just shouldn't help Maggie with her? Maybe she should clean or cook something that didn't involve talking to Beth because one day she just might help her. Because she understood her and her way of viewing the world in this moment.

"There was a knife," said Lori, snapping Charlie from her thoughts.

"What?"

"Beth." Lori breathed and started running. "She took the knife."

Charlie was sitting on a kitchen counter, hitting the back of her head lightly on the shelf. After Andrea brought Maggie back house was filled with screams of the sisters. It seemed that the fight was a never-ending story and it would be done the moment they lost their voices.

"Where's Hershel?" Andrea asked.

"He doesn't want to find out yet," said Lori. "It's a family affair. We'll let them work it out."

"That's working it out?" Andrea opened her eyes wider.

Andrea was really from a different world. Charlie knew that she left her family house when Amy was still small and due to a big age gap, their relationship was different. A younger sister was more like a daughter to Andrea, so they probably never fought like that.

Charlie knew what that meant. Luckily Maggie and Beth were both girls, so even if they started fighting physically it wouldn't be that bad. She had brothers, and fighting with growing up men wasn't the greatest experience for a girl."When Beth stops fighting, that's when it's time to worry." Charlie answered.

"This could've been handled better," Andrea mumbled under her nose.

"How so?"

"You shouldn't have taken the knife away." she turned to Lori.

Both Lori and Charlie looked at the woman as if she had three heads. And the second one wanted to use the knife on Andrea. How she could even say something like that? Charlie understood Beth and was thinking similarly to her lately, but still it wasn't a reason to just give her a knife a say here, cut your wrist open. They should try to give her a reason to live first.

"Excuse me?" Lori opened her eyes wider.

"You were wrong, like Dale taking my gun," she said and Charlie whispered Oh, God. "That wasn't your decision. She has to choose to live on her own. She has to find her own reasons."

Charlie started to think about it. In some crazy way- which she would never admit to Andrea- she was right. If one wants to live, they should find their own reason. And that made her think what reason does she have to live? What was keeping Charlie Reed on the planet Earth with living and breathing people? Did she even have a reason? She shook her head quickly to get rid of those thoughts.

"Want me to tie a noose for her?" Lori asked.

"If she's serious, she will figure out a way," Andrea said.

"Doesn't mean I can't stop her or let her know that I care."

"That has nothing to do with it, Lori." The blonde woman shook her head. "She only has so many choices in front of her, and she believes the best one is suicide."

"That's not an option," Lori argued.

"Of course it is," said Andrea. "She doesn't need to be yelled at or treated like a child."

"She needs a loaded gun, right?" Charlie entered the conversation again. "Besides, she is a child."

Lori touched Charlie's knee, grateful that she got her back."You will understand if I don't let you in there."

"I came through it," Andrea said in disbelief.

"And became such a productive member of the group." Grimes nodded.

This time Charlie couldn't stop herself and didn't bite her tongue. "Who shoots other members, ignores what others say, and wants a teenager to kill herself."

"You both." Lori looked at them. "Let Maggie handle this her way."

"I contribute. I help keep this place safe."

Lori sent Charlie a look that said to keep quiet this time and don't start the fight again. Then she looked at the blonde. "The man can handle this on their own. They don't need your help."

"I'm sorry. What would you have me do?"

"Oh, there's plenty of work to go around." Lori leaned on a countertop that Charlie was sitting on.

"Are you serious?" she asked with wide eyes. "Charlie has been sitting and doing nothing since we came here and that's not a problem. She makes a drama every two days and you're in my face over skipping laundry?"

"Pardon? Let me break your bubble real quick." Charlie said, feeling the annoyance boiling inside. "I was running in that woods looking for a girl. I was playing a nurse after you shot Daryl. Patricia needed someone to help her clean? I was there. Jimmy couldn't handle horses? I helped. Hershel was taking cows on the field? I was with him." she said. "You were the one disappearing with Shane."

"Charlie's right." Lori nodded. "Your behavior puts a burden on the rest of us. On me, Carol, Patricia, and Maggie. Cooking and cleaning and looking for Beth. And you...You don't care about anyone but yourself. You sit up on that RV, working on your tan with a shotgun in your lap."

"No, I am on watch against walkers," Andrea argued. "That is what matters, not fresh mint leaves in the lemonade."

"Funny that the only Walker that you protected us from wasn't even a Walker." Charlie interrupted this time, still feeling pity for that. She really didn't know why she was still so angry for that and she knew it was getting annoying, but a small part of her just couldn't swallow it. It was funny because even Daryl didn't care about it so much.

Lori sighed. "We are providing stability. We're trying to create a life worth living."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Look, I went after Rick. I took down two walkers after crashing Maggie's car. Don't act like you're the only one..."

"Ever apologize for that?" Andrea interrupted her.

"You're insane." Charlie sighed.

"No, you are. Both of you." she almost yelled. "You, Charlie, are still a teenager that thinks everything is about you. But you know what? You're not even worth wasting my breath for." she said and turned to Lori. Charlie opened her mouth at her words, but didn't know that the woman would throw a bucket of trash on the other one."And you are the self-centered one, the way you take it all for granted."

"My husband is out there for the hundredth time. My son was shot." Lori answered. "Don't you dare tell me I take this for granted?"

"You don't get it do you?" she leaned on the table. "Your husband came back from the dead, your son, too. And now you've got a baby on the way. The rest of us have piled up our losses. Me, Carol, Beth...even Charlie. But you just keep on keeping up."

"We have all suffered," Lori said.

"Playing house, acting like the queen bee, laying down rules for everybody but yourself." she continued. "You know that? Go ahead. Go in there and tell that little girl that everything's gonna be okay, just like it is for you. She'll get a husband, a son, a baby, a boyfriend."

Charlie opened eyes and she didn't know where she should look. The silence after those words was just too loud. It wasn't nothing new for Charlie, but having Andrea just say this like it was nothing? That was another level of drama.

And Charlie would be the one saying exactly what Andrea did just a couple of days ago, but Lori was so nice to her. Truth be told, she began to like the pregnant woman.

"She just has to look on the bright side," Andrea said and left.

"I think I need some air," Charlie said and stood on her legs, going to the entrance.

It was a sunny day, even if the air was beginning to be cold. It was good though, after a steamy conversation with Andrea, she needed to cool down a little. There was a quiet, but steady sound of metal hitting on other metal, so Charlie followed that and saw Daryl. He was leaning on his motorcycle.

"You need help?" she asked.

He looked up at her and then on his motorcycle, examining what he needed. "Could you hand me a screwdriver?"

"The yellow one or the red one?"

"Allen one," he said.

Charlie looked inside his box and then at him with two question marks instead of eyes. "So the yellow one or the red one?

Daryl closed his eyes and sighed. He appreciated her help and missed her nonstop talking during those past few days, but he forgot how clueless she could be. "Just bring all of them."

So Charlie happily handed him his little box and watched how he took out the right screwdriver and started repairing whatever was broken.

"Were you a mechanic before?"

"Nah," he answered. "I taught myself when we didn't have money to pay an actual one."

"You learned how to hunt, how to repair cars...Any other abilities?" she smiled.

"I know how to open a beer with a shoelace."

"Impressive."

No one ever said that he was impressive. For forty years he had never heard that from anyone, Merle spent with him every day and he did a lot of things for him, yet there were no words of gratitude. He had known Charlie for around two months and she was showering him with kind words. Maybe that's why she was in his mind so much? Because he tried to guess what was making her so kind to him. "Hmm."

"Got a way with those tools," Charlie said as he immersed himself into his task. She rested her chin on her hand, watching his muscles flex in the sun.

"Just doin' what needs to be done," he answered with a screwdriver between his lips. "Ain't much of a hobby."

"I was thinking more like skills. You're pretty handy, aren't you?"

"Well, survival tends to bring out unexpected talent."

"Lucky for me...I mean us. A hunter, a fighter, a mechanic. You're multi-talented," she said again. "Maybe you could teach me a thing or two about fixing things, too."

"Just gotta figure it out as you go," he looked up at her but quickly looking down again.

"If something goes down, I'd rather have you by my side instead of...figuring it out as I go."

"You're searching for protection or just looking for someone to fix your stuff?" he chuckled uncontrollably.

"Maybe."

Daryl looks up from the bike, his hands still coated in grease, and meets Charlie's gaze. There's a momentary pause as their eyes lock, tension simmering beneath the surface. Despite the grime and weariness of their surroundings, there's an undeniable spark between them. Daryl's rugged features soften slightly as he returns Charlie's gaze, a hint of a smile playing at the corner of his lips. Charlie's expression is equally suggestive, a playful glint in their eyes as they hold Daryl's gaze. There's a moment of tension as their eyes lock, a silent exchange of flirtatious energy passing between them. Neither speaks, but the intensity of the moment speaks volumes.

"So..." he cleared his throat. "You stopped playing house with Lori?" he asked, changing the subject to distract himself.

"Oh yeah. I was almost a wrestling referee," she said and earned a look from Daryl. "Andrea is getting out of hand."

"You really don't like her," he said and leaned in to continue his work.

"She didn't give me a reason to like her."

"Fair enough," he grunted. "How's the blond girl?"

"Not good," she said. "Took a knife from a trace."

"She wants to kill herself?" Daryl asked wiping a smear from his hands into his trousers.

"Yeah." Charlie nodded. "She thinks that life now is pointless."

"You agree with her?" he furrowed his brows. Charlie bit her lips, not answering. "You really agree with her."

Daryl felt this irrational anger in his chest. He felt similar back in the CDC. They never talked about it, so she never confirmed or denied it, but he saw how she hesitated, and if Glenn hadn't forced her to leave she would have stayed with Jacquie.

"She's not completely wrong and y..." she said, but was interrupted by screams that were coming from the house."Oh, shit." Charlie muttered and ran there.

She saw how Maggie stormed out of it with Lori just behind her, they were both looking worried. Well, Maggie was pissed off, if she could she would burn like a fire. If her eyes could kill, Andrea would be dead right now."Where were you?"

"I heard. Is she all right?" Andrea asked.

"She would be if you had stayed with her," Maggie said angrily and repeated her question. "Where were you?"

"How bad is she?" Charlie asked worried.

"It wasn't deep."

"She wants to live." she smiled clearly happy. "She made her decision."

"She tried to kill herself," Maggie said.

"No, she didn't."

"My father is stitching her wrist right now."

"She'll live," Andrea said and tried to pass Greene to enter the house.

"Stay away from her." she blocked her from entering the house. "From both of us. Don't you dare to step foot inside this house again?"

Charlie looked at Andrea and passed all three of them, so she could see what was with Beth. Honestly, she couldn't care less about the argument and about Andrea- she had it coming.

The room was getting dark as the sun was hiding behind the horizon. The only person in there was Beth with her wrist still placed on a table- it was already stitched and wrapped up in bandages. She noticed Charlie entering the room, so she looked up and gave her a pale smile."I'm sorry."

"Don't be." she smiled and touched her shoulder. "What matters is that you're alive."

"You should do it, too," Beth said. "Live."

Charlie looked at her. Her face was still pale, but something changed in the way she was looking at her. It was more sane, her eyes weren't so empty anymore.

"Maybe now you think there is nothing for you here, but I think differently now," she said. "I think there's still so much that life has to offer. You just need the courage to hold on through the bad times."

"You think it's going to be easier?" Charlie asked. "Losing people. Running from the Walkers. Killing."

"I don't know," Beth said and shrugged. "But I know there's a reason for you, too. You said that yourself. There's so many things that you didn't do."

"So drinking your first shot convinced you to stay alive?" she smiled and put a smile on Beth's face.

"I just want you to be sure of the decision," she answered. "I want to grow old, have my own kids, I want to watch them play with my Daddy. I just want a life."

Charlie smiled and placed her hand in hers, caressing the back of Beth's smooth skin.

"But don't try to do this, Daddy's out of painkillers," she said, placing her hand on Charlie's. "Dying is easy, Charlie."

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#daryl dixon #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl x reader #daryl fanfiction #daryl twd #daryl dixon twd #daryl the walking dead #daryl dixon series

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autumnsup · 2 years

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Prompt: Anticipation

@wolfstarmicrofic

“Stop moving,” commanded Lily, as she applied eyeliner to Sirius. “Or do you want to look like a sad panda?”

“Worked for Lou Reed,” said Remus, who was already in full Rocky regalia. He still couldn’t believe he’d agreed to it, but a dare was a dare, and besides, James had begged to go as Dr. Frank-n-Furter this year for a change. This left Sirius with no choice but to go as Columbia, and Remus was enjoying the transformation immensely.

“Must you press so hard?” whined Sirius, crossing one fishnet-clad leg over the other.

Lily, with a sound of exasperation, licked at her eyebrow pencil and tried again.

“How many times is it now?” said Peter, who was going as Brad. He always went as Brad, and brought whatever girl he was dating as Janet.

“Fourth time,” said James, with a grin. He looked smashing in drag, and somehow not in the least effeminate. “And this time shall be the best, if none of us dies of anticipation first.”

Sirius, on the other hand, looked deeply androgynous in a twinkling bustier and bow tie. “Careful with the hair, Lils,” he advised. “Spell it too short, and it’ll look more Bowie than Columbia.”

“Enough with the glam rock music references,” said Lily. “The two of you listen to far too much as it is.”

“There’s no such thing as too much glam rock,” countered Sirius. “Because glam rock by definition IS too much.”

“You’re too much,” said Lily. “Now shush while I put on your lipstick.”

The end result wasn’t half bad, and Sirius looked at himself in the mirror at length, while the others wandered off to gather food and drink from the kitchen.

“Hey,” said Remus, lingering. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the look suits you.”

Sirius craned his neck to look Remus over from head to toe and back again, landing somewhere around his middle. “And you,” he said. “Shows off your abs to perfection.”

Remus was pretty sure that he was looking lower than his abs, but their friends were within earshot and he felt it was best to let that sleeping dog lie for now. “Who knew I had them,” he deadpanned, glancing down at himself. It was hard to overlook the scars, but thanks to time and various healing potions, they were more like tattoos than blemishes now, and Remus had to admit that they looked rather cool.

“I knew,” said Sirius, biting his lip and tilting his head back as he looked up at Remus, who felt absurdly tall and underdressed in comparison. “It’s about time the world catches up to the fact that my boyfriend is a gorgeous hunk.”

“Not the impression I was intending to make, but I suppose it beats being pinned as a bookish hermit.” He scratched at his head and added, “You do know that this is a blue-moon event and will probably never happen again.”

“Yes, I do. Just like we all know you’re so much more than that,” said Sirius, and Remus’ heart, which was apparently training for the circus now, did a backwards flip. “Along with Lily, you’re the glue that holds us together, and keeps James and me from getting into too much trouble.”

Remus looked away, blushing. “Yeah, well, I’m not always good at it.”

“Good enough,” said Sirius, and when Remus met his eyes again, the temperature of the room felt about five degrees warmer. “Now, what do you say we get away from these nutters and put those gold shorts to good use?”

Thanks for the awesome prompts this January! I had a lot of fun with them, and I enjoyed reading other people’s microfics too. I’m probably not going to be as consistent with posting microfics for February, as I’m working on writing a few longer fics at the moment. You’re welcome to check out my completed works on AO3 if it strikes your fancy. Keep up the excellent work, y’all! 🍀

#wolfstar microfic #wolfstar #marauders #rhps

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percontaion-points · 3 months

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Fearless (HMA 4) chapters 13 & 14

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Click here for the rest of the series!

Chapter 13

“How’s my mom?”

Pearl grimaced and wrapped her arms around herself again. There was none of her usual sneering confidence as she said, “Physically she’s fine. Marrow really is acting like she’s an important guest and ally. But she doesn’t seem to get it comes with strings, or that she’s basically his prisoner.”

I’m not even surprised. Somebody stupid enough to get themselves into this situation would 100% think this, yes.

“But you heard that woman with Holland. If I’m still a void – or call it what you want – then she won’t be the last one to look at you differently.”

I thought that we’d already established that there’s no such thing as “voids”, only people who shift into different animals other than wolves.

All of this trouble with the Marrow pack was because of me, after all. It was my grandfather who snatched our people up like they were pieces on his game board.

How the hell does she go from “this was all my fault” to springboarding from the ACTUAL problem?

Of course, I could have waited until after the great morning sex before I hit him with that viewpoint, couldn’t I?

Chapter 13 summary: Pearl explains that, since they are literal children, even Johnathan is getting a little fed up with their endless energy. Pearl told him that she was going to take the children “for a walk”. They made it to the boundary of the Marrow estate before guards set down on Reed. He led them away simply so that Pearl could escape with the twins. Marnie is angry over the entire thing seeing as how they’re due to be mated and everything. But Jasper is of the opinion “You all did what you needed to do in order to rescue my brothers. Reed is trained for this; he’ll be okay.”

Vail goes to her shared bedroom with Jasper, where she transforms into a cat and snuggles up with one of Jasper’s hoodies. Jasper comes in with his brothers, who share more images with Vail. Despite the fact that she’s now a cat and they’re wolves, the cat enjoys the babies. The four of them snuggle up together to sleep.

In the morning, things start to get a little hot and heavy between them. But then Jasper remembers his brothers are supposed to be there, and Vail grumbles that he should have waited until after sex.

Chapter 14

“You knew about her all along, but you never told me. I get that you couldn’t, because of the pact with my dad, but there was time for you to tell me before you bit me. And then you had Callum bring me to you, shit scared and completely confused. Maybe you thought that was okay because you’d known about me for most of your life, and you just assumed this is how things were going to be between us. But it was all news to me. And instead of giving me time to work through it, you took what you wanted. You didn’t stop to think if my cat wanted you back, Trey.”

YES GIRL. CALL HIM THE FUCK OUT.

“You didn’t stop to think if my cat wanted you back, Trey.”

“She does,” he said through gritted teeth. “You do as well, only you won’t admit it.”

I was already shaking my head. “You’re wrong. Jasper’s the only mate I’ve ever wanted.”

“Too bad,” he snarled, grabbing my wrist. “We’re mated, and you can’t change that now.”

Why is this coming off as “he’s mansplaining her feelings to her”?

“Everything I’ve done has been to keep you safe.”

Ah yes. Leaving her with a man who turned around and sold her to the highest bidder was 100% keeping her safe!

I sniffed. “Okay, dad. Just hurry home.”

Chapter 14 summary: As Vail eats breakfast, two random dudes come over and tell Vail that they’re basically her personal assistants-slash-bodyguards. That they’re eager to please her by doing whatever she wants. Vail then stands up and announces to EVERYBODY in the dining hall at that time that she wants to decorate for Christmas in an effort to cheer everybody up. So her two assistants eagerly leave to go find a tree.

Vail leaves the caves with the twins in order to let them run off some energy. However, as she’s loping around with them in her cat form, Trey joins her. He runs with them for a little bit before he transforms back and tells Vail to do the same. However, her cat has a mind of its own, and refuses to listen. She’s also so powerful that Trey using the cat version of “alpha power” to force a shift no longer works. Not since Vail took control over the cat side of her.

Anyway, after a moment, Vail does shift back, and she calls Trey out on his shit. That he’s been lying and manipulating her for as long as she can remember. She wants nothing to do with him… Full stop.

She meets back up with her two gophers as they come back with the tree, so she and the twins go back to the caves. However, as people come together to start decorating things, Vail gets a call from her father. Her actual father.

He obviously warns her to stay away from the Marrow estate, full stop. But then goes on to say all of this stuff about “it was all to protect you” and “your mother wanted you to grow up feeling loved”. None of which actually happened for Vail, thank you kindly.

#Fearless (HMA 4)#hunter moon academy

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sandythereadingcafe · 1 year

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#books #deals #snark #humor #The Pride SEries #Shelly Laurenston

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cocktailsfairytales · 2 years

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𝐇𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮

Brody McKinnon is Whitmore University's star defenseman destined for NHL greatness. He made a name for himself playing juniors before gracing us with his esteemed presence. As much as it pains me to admit it, he’s exploded at the college level.

Unfortunately for me, I’m about to experience the worst week of my life. It starts with my ex announcing at a party that I’m a lousy lay. He’s the hockey-playing jerk I dated last year who left a bad taste in my mouth (*eyeroll* seriously…get your mind out of the gutter).

Want to guess who rides in on his trusty white steed to rescue me? Or should I say, opens his big mouth? Yup, you guessed it. Brody freaking McKinnon, the guy I love to hate. He only makes matters worse by telling everyone that we’re together and then punching Reed in the face.

The first…I plan on strangling him for.

The second…I’m only sorry I didn’t get to Reed first.

Now I’m stuck fake-dating Brody, the one guy who makes me feel like a rabid dog on a choke chain, for the foreseeable future. I guarantee we won’t last more than seventy-two hours without me killing him.

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

Emerson and I met freshman year of high school and we’ve been tight ever since. I’ve been pretty good about keeping her locked in the- girls I don’t think about having sex with part of my brain. Luckily for me, Southern University has an overabundance of Red Devils hockey groupies, which means there are always plenty of puck bunnies for me to choose from. I’m just careful to make sure they look nothing like Em. So, it should be all good in the hood, right?

Wrong.

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but lately, I can’t seem to get it up. Unless an image of Em pops into my head. Then it’s all systems go. It’s a messed-up situation. One Emerson is blissfully unaware of. And that’s exactly the way it needs to stay. What I’ve learned is that friendship is a hell of a lot harder to come by than hookups. Ready for a complication? It turns out that Em is a virgin. And she wants me to be the one to, well…take care of business. You better believe I shot down the idea before it could gain traction in my brain. Maybe Em doesn’t realize it, but remaining friends after you’ve slept with someone happens about as often as spotting a tie-dye-colored unicorn that craps sprinkles. If it weren’t rare, everyone would be doing it, right?

Exactly.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐩 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧

Grayson McNichols can have his pick of girls on this campus. Just ask him and he’ll tell you that the females of Hillsdale University have a real penchant for sexy, hockey playing hotties. Hell, all he has to do is flash a smile in their direction and they fall right onto their backs and spread their legs.

Would I happen to be one of them?

I’m going to plead the fifth on that one.

All right, fine. I made the mistake of knocking boots with Gray freshman year. What can I say? I’m a sucker for gorgeous guys with inky black hair, bright blue eyes, and dimples.

After we hooked up, I never heard from Gray again. Not that I expected too. Okay, that’s a lie. Maybe for one brief, delusional moment, I thought I might be different. You know, the girl who changes the hockey playing bad boy for the better (cue the laughter).

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I totally deserve what I get.

Well, I don’t plan on falling into that trap ever again.

Except…now our parents are dating, and Gray’s come up with a cockamamie plan to break them up that has disaster written all over it.

*All three books are complete stand alone novels, not part of a series.

Find more books by Jennifer Sucevic here: www.jennifersucevic.com

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joyffree · 2 years

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🏒NOW AVAILABLE🏒

One-click yours here - https://books2read.com/hockeyhottiescollection

🏒Blurbs🏒

𝐇𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮

The first…I plan on strangling him for.

The second…I’m only sorry I didn’t get to Reed first.

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

Wrong.

Exactly.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐩 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧

Would I happen to be one of them?

I’m going to plead the fifth on that one.

All right, fine. I made the mistake of knocking boots with Gray freshman year. What can I say? I’m a sucker for gorgeous guys with inky black hair, bright blue eyes, and dimples.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I totally deserve what I get.

Well, I don’t plan on falling into that trap ever again.

Except…now our parents are dating, and Gray’s come up with a cockamamie plan to break them up that has disaster written all over it.

*All three books are complete stand alone novels, not part of a series.

Find more books by Jennifer Sucevic here: www.jennifersucevic.com

#hockeyromance #collection #sportsromance #fakerelationship #friendstolovers #enemiestolovers #hotheroes #newadultbooks #wordsmithpublicity

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darklydeliciousdesires · 2 years

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Not One of Many - Chapter Twenty.

Previous chapters - Prologue One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen Seventeen Eighteen Nineteen

Tag list - In the comments

Words - 4,114

Warnings - 18+ content, adult audience only. Minors DNI!

“Good morning, sunshine!”

While she might have been greeted with such a term, it was the person who used it whom Beth often equated to sunshine personified, opening her arms to give Mimi a big hug as she closed the door to Alfie’s Range Rover, arriving at the stables in good time. He’d told her it made sense to insure her on it too, should she ever want to head off anywhere without worrying about exuberant Uber fees or relying on public transport. The journey up had made Beth realise just how much she missed driving. Especially now she got to drive such a beautiful car, thanking the stars it was an automatic, as this was what she had learned in and driven back when she once owned a car herself.

“Hello, lovely girl. How are you?”

“Employed! I got the job at London Life and Style!”

Beth was thrilled for her. “Oh, well done, Mims!” she cried, another hug of congratulations following.

“It was just the boost I needed, since Sony, Nickleodeon, a vape juice company, a builder's merchants and a small organic farm all said no. I was so surprised, but apparently, I’m just what they’re looking for. And they said they’d had a good recommendation from a certain freelance journalist, so I have you to thank.”

She had put in a good word for Mimi, this much was true. Mostly because she knew she’d be perfect for the job, but a little facet of her good deed had been driven by guilt, that because of her, Mimi’s happy relationship with Alfie had ended. She was still bowled over by how well she was taking it, until she learned that the sadness of losing her love had been somewhat softened.

“So, I have more news!” Mimi divulged in teaser as they rode out over the fields, Beth turning to her with curiosity.

“Oh, Miss Downing-Hansen?” she began. “Do reveal!”

“I’ve met someone.” She could barely keep the smile from her face. Beth was glad, not for selfish reasons or easing of her own little slither of guilt, but because at twenty-one years old and six weeks out of her most recent relationship, Mimi was prime for a new romance. “His name is Josh; he actually works in the same building at the magazine offices are situated. We met in the lift as I was leaving from my interview! He’s twenty-six, he works at Miller Reed publishing as a copywriter and we’ve had three dates so far. I really like him, he’s so nice and easy going.”

“And when are you seeing him again?”

“Tonight, I’m so excited! I’ve no idea where he’s taking me, I just have to be ready for 7pm for him to come and pick me up in a black cab. It’s so nice, isn’t it, in the early days of a relationship. I mean, you’re there too right now, so we can be excited together!”

Mimi’s enthusiasm was contagious, but still, for Beth she felt a little awkward about it still.

“You know you can be, right? Beth, you don’t have to feel bad that you’re now with my ex. If I wasn’t fine with it, I would have been selfish and hung onto him. Or I’d be behaving like that nutcase Talia. He told me on the phone a few days ago about her antics. It’s absolutely fucking shocking!”

She nodded knowingly, widening her eyes. “Oh, there’s been progression.”

Mimi’s head virtually swivelled to view her. “Progression? What, worse than throwing a glass at you and trying to gate crash parties you’re at?”

“The night before last, I had someone bang on my front door and leg it afterwards. Then they came back and did it again. I didn’t put the pieces together at first, until I realised it really couldn’t have been anyone but her. It did raise the slightly worrying concern that being she doesn’t know where I live, she must’ve been watching Alfie’s house for considerable enough time to have tracked my movements and followed me home.”

Mimi looked stunned for a few moments, like she truly couldn’t just believe what she’d heard, going to speak, but her voice only coming out in chopped little noises. “Is she... I mean... what... the fuck?”

“I know.”

“She’s got ten years on me and she’s acting twenty younger!”

“I know!”

“I thought she was seriously beginning to lack some self-respect during the final days of her and Alfie being together, but bloody hell! That’s really taking the piss, though, acting like that. She’s so immature.” Her eyes were still wide as she processed it, shaking her head further, the whole fiasco unfathomable to her. Why couldn’t she just let Alfie move on? “What does she expect to prove by behaving like this? What, does she want him back? If so, surely she realises this isn’t the way to go about it. I mean, not that he’d be receptive to it even if she was behaving sanely. He’s in love with you and he’s happy.”

“No, I don’t think she wants him back, or at least, she does but she knows it’s over and thusly is raging about that fact,” Beth began, quietening Sunny when she spooked a little at a rabbit running out from the hedgerow, the mare having a puff and blow as she dived to the side. “I think she’s out to punish him, try and shame him with as many people there to witness it as possible by screaming her warped version of the truth. As for me, she’s trying to rattle me because she’s bitter that in her mind, I took her place. To be fair, that is what happened, just not quite in the way she’s claiming.”

Mimi snorted softly, looking empathetic. “Whatever her aim is, it’s the last thing you need, having to look over your shoulder, wondering what she’s going to do next.”

Beth hadn’t considered escalation, but Mimi’s words suddenly made that cold, spiny feeling return to swirl in her guts. Would Talia up the ante? “Sorry, did I say something wrong?”

Mimi’s concern was touching, Beth reaching to stroke her forearm. “No, you didn’t. I just hope she doesn’t do anything next, but I have to expect that she likely will. I wonder what her end game is, but at the same time, the thought of such is a little perturbing.”

“I’m sorry, I should have been more careful with my words.”

“No, no,” Beth began, wanting to reassure her. “What you said is only natural. Whatever she does choose, though, it’s only going to prompt Alfie into filing a restraining over against her.”

Mimi looked on with wide eyes. “You think she might do something that warrants it?”

“Well, if she’s watching our movements, she already is. What she’s doing is stalking, even though she’s only just begun, it doesn’t negate that fact.”

“I suppose not,” Mimi conceded. “Well, you get to have a nice time today with me and forget about her, so let’s change the subject.” She was only too happy to do so. “Oh! But if I can move back to an ex-girlfriend for a second, I finally heard from Amira again!”

Beth winced slightly, remembering Alfie detailing her tearful heartbreak to her. “How is she?”

“She’s doing really well, yeah. She’s gotten right back into her modelling, she apologised for ignoring me and not being in touch either, said she needed a bit of time just to get over it all and adjust to her life being so different suddenly. She revealed that while she isn’t completely over Alfie that she’s feeling stronger every day, and she wants to continue seeing me. I said I couldn’t as anything other than a friend, because of Josh, obviously, and she was really happy for me. She told me to say hello to you as well for her.”

Well, that was certainly a nice surprise for Beth to hear. Now if only the third of his exes could find a little grace.

Their day with the horses was wonderful, Mimi even managing to encourage her into taking Sunny over a fallen log fence, Beth elated since she hadn’t jumped in years and wasn’t particularly confident with it back when she had before. Mimi took photos as well while guiding her, which she was elated to see after returning back to Alfie’s, Mimi sending them over on a Whatsapp, telling her she looked forward to seeing her the following Saturday, the new friends deciding to make it a regular thing.

“Look at you!” Alfie exclaimed, viewing the picture over her shoulder as he entered the kitchen, finding her mid-matzo snack.

“I’m so proud of myself, I didn’t think I could do it but Mimi was so encouraging, talked me through it the entire time. She’s fantastic.”

Alfie kissed her cheek, smiling. “She is, bloody lovely girl. Did she tell you about her new fella? I’m glad she’s found someone else, glad she told me about him an’ all. I like that we’ve remained good friends.”

“She did,” Beth confirmed. “We should ask them if they want to go out as a four sometime.” Her suggestion was met by enthusiasm from him, Alfie making himself a coffee before heading back to his office. He was so close now to the whole Dubai deal beginning that he was putting most of his free time into it, Beth of course more than understanding that she had to come second for another week, until they broke ground on it and he could relax a little more.

In the spirit of that, she gave him his space, heading home the following evening, spending the next few days at her flat, finishing her article highlighting the plight of women who had received botched plastic surgery in their quest to conform to societal-borne beauty standards and beginning the research for her new one, where she would look into women working in careers viewed as traditionally male dominated.

It was while she was emailing a woman who worked within the car industry as an engine technician for Audi, asking if she could perhaps interview her for the piece, that she heard a banging upon her front door. Not again. She ignored it, continuing to type. Five minutes later, she heard the same again. Feeling brave, she opened the curtain, of course finding not a soul around. However, what she did see out there was a box upon the doorstep.

Sometimes, her usual Amazon man did arrive quite late, her and the sweet Richard having a laugh about it, him knowing she was often up late so leaving her delivery until last on his way home to Wandsworth. She didn’t remember ordering anything, though, and Richard always waited until she answered the door.

Her mind didn’t want to go to the most logical conclusion, but she couldn’t help but concede that it more than likely was Talia messing with her, trying to goad her out of the house in order to spring something on her, some kind of warped revenge. After her talk about it with Mimi five days previously, she had been expecting her to up the ante somehow.

Heading into the hall, she hesitated, her nerves tingling, putting the chain on and opening the door while standing back and waiting. Nothing happened. She waited a little longer just to be certain, nothing but quiet outside, other than a faraway man’s voice shouting ‘oi, wait! I’ve dropped me bloody chips!’ to whomever he was with.

Taking the chain off the door, she reached out and slid the box inside, shutting it again quickly, picking the package up to carry it through to the kitchen. It was a plain cardboard box, innocuous enough looking, Beth giving it a little shake. Something thudded softly inside, and whatever it was, it smelled pretty bad. Like a butcher's shop.

“What on earth?” Taking a knife, she slit the tape, opening the flaps to reveal the contents. “Jesus fucking Christ!” Well, there was the butcher’s smell explained, the box containing what looked to be a cow’s heart, severed into two pieces. There was a note, too.

“Now your heart is broken as well!”

A message, perhaps? Alfie. She hadn’t...

Flying out of the room, she grabbed her phone, calling him.

“Hello, baby beast. How was your night?”

Thank god. He was fine. She knew it was a ridiculous, overly dramatic conclusion to allow into her head, especially since Alfie was more than capable of defending himself, but still, she couldn’t be blamed for wondering.

“Boo, can you come and pick me up? Something’s happened and I’m a bit scared, I don’t want to be here, I’m all freaked out!” she babbled in panic, her heart somersaulting.

“What’s gone on, love?”

“Talia, I think she dropped a package off here meant to rattle me, and well, mission accomplished.”

He felt a knot of anger form in his stomach at hearing his ex’s name, but remained calm for Beth’s sake. “A package?”

“Just come over and I’ll show you, please hurry.”

“I’m on me way, sweetheart. You locked the door and windows an’ all that, yeah?”

“I have, yes.”

“Alright. Don’t panic, I’ll be there soon. Love you.”

“Okay, I love you too.”

She paced around, chewing her thumb nervously until he arrived, Alfie knocking and calling that it was him through the door, which she found reassuring. Letting him in, she felt instantly better for seeing her boyfriend, even more so when he wrapped her in a hug, his scent comforting. Nothing bad happened in Alfie’s arms. “What’s happened then, precious?”

“I’m probably overreacting, but come with me.” Walking to the kitchen, she opened the door and pointed at where the box was sat upon the counter. “She sent that.”

He peered in, leaning back out again at speed. “What the actual fuck is wrong with the woman? I just... I’m so sorry, darlin’.”

“Why, it isn’t your fault. This is all on her.”

He hugged her, kissing her head. “Yeah, but I was the idiot who had a relationship with her and didn’t see how mental she was right until the end.”

She appreciated him saying it, but it honestly wasn’t his fault. “You finishing with her should have been the end, but apparently she has other ideas.”

“Not for much longer, she fuckin’ don’t.” Pulling his phone out, he rang the best legal mind for advice. “Alright, Steve. Sorry to call ya late, but I need a bit of advice.”

He detailed the situation, listening as Steve explained how the land lay legally, Alfie not looking particularly thrilled as he nodded. “Okay mate, yeah thanks for that. I’ll see ya Friday, bye.”

“What did he say?”

Alfie scratched his beard, raising his eyebrows. “Well, since she ain’t actually threatened no one, there’s nothing we can do as yet. As and when she begins to display such behaviour is when we can take it to the police and file a restraining order. Until then, he said keep any evidence such as this, obviously you can’t keep a piece of offal that’ll rot, but take a picture and keep the note. Unfortunately, she is, as Steve said, a menace we might have to endure for a while until we can gather substantial evidence in her harassing us.”

That didn’t particularly sit well with Beth, not able to feel safe in her own home. Alfie was quick to sense that, as well. “Pack up plenty of stuff and come stay with me for as long as you want to. I ain’t having you over here worrying yourself to death over it, darlin’.”

“Thank you.” She went through to her bedroom, Alfie wondering around her flat, the first time he’d ever been inside it. It was about the same size as his first place he’d been able to afford when moving out from his mother’s house in Camden, except not as nice as Beth’s quaint abode, full of charm and character that exuded her personality from every wall, every little piece of furniture or ornament as well.

Grabbing her cases and hold all bags, she packed a pile of stuff, more than she probably needed, Alfie ferrying it out to his Range Rover, which he’d had to park a little way down her road, parking being so atrocious. When he came back, she was in the fridge.

“Erm, I have food at mine, petal.”

“I’ll be damned if I’m leaving my mother’s leftover kugel and my salmon pate behind to go bad!” she exclaimed, putting the dish and tubs into one of her hessian shopping bags. It was lucky she needed to do the shopping as there wasn’t much else in there, save some butter and a pint of milk she poured away, so she didn’t return to it resembling cottage cheese. Once she had those things, as well as her fruit, she packed up her laptop, grabbed her denim jacket and slid her feet into her Ugg slippers, making sure everything was switched off before locking up, dumping the cow's heart into the communal bin for her flat and the other two within the three-storey townhouse.

“It’s alright, she ain’t gonna do nothing to you while I’m here,” he reassured her when she gripped his hand tightly, looking around everywhere.

“I know, I’m just jumpy that she was here in the first place, that she’s been following me enough to know where I live. She must be watching your house a lot, to have seen me leave two days ago to come back here.”

“Makes me wish she was a fella, because then if I caught her doing it, I’d be able to fuckin’ headbutt her for her fuckery. But I draw the line at striking a woman.” Reaching the car, she placed her food bag in the rear footwell, jumping in, so glad to be being whisked off back to Chelsea, to the home that had the kind of security which ensured Talia wouldn’t be getting anywhere near the front door. Even if she jumped the wall, she’d be all over the CCTV.

As soon as she was across the threshold of the former church, she breathed a sigh of relief, putting the food items into the fridge and turning to hug Alfie.

“Want me to take your mind off it?” he asked, stroking her back.

“What did you have in mind?”

He grinned, lifting her to perch her bum on the island, his mouth moving to leave soft kisses at the side of her neck as he pulled down her lounge suit trousers and undies, Beth letting her slippers fall from her feet. “I like where this is going.”

“I thought you might.” He pushed her back to lie flat against the island, elbows nudging her thighs apart, watching the beauty of her sex spread before him, introducing his tongue to her folds in the form of a long, flat, hard lick. Each lave was given in keener succession than the last, tasting her petal soft folds hungrily, driving glimmers through her as she warmed to him, a soft moan filling the air as he sought her clit and circled it with tight, firm sweeps.

“Better now?”

“Ahhhhh!” That was good enough an answer for him.

“Good.” Kissing her clit, he then continued to delight it with his tongue, gently sucking, playing with her piercing, fingertips stroking her thighs as he felt her starting to get wet for him, his tongue dewy with her slick before long.

Gratification swept through her strongly as she felt his powerful hands stroke her thighs, looking up to watch him eating her, the vibrations of his moans around the mouthful of her cunt adding to the pleasure of his quick moving tongue. Each beat of it against her hardened nub caused a greater pulse of pleasure than the last, her head softly thudding back against the cool marble beneath her as she sighed breathlessly.

He’d gotten her so sumptuously wet already that she craved the gratification of feeling him inside of her, that need somewhat sated when he licked at her glossy opening and pushed his tongue within a little, before going back to circling her aching clit. He knew she was more than ready for him, and with his erection painfully throbbing within his jeans, Alfie knew he wanted nothing more than to pull it out and arrow it straight into her velvety, wet plush. He was so ferociously aroused, he could barely stand it.

“Ohhhh, oh fuck!” She cried, her hands clinging onto his thick biceps as he sucked at her clit, her head spinning. God, he was so good. She panted and undulated, her body moving in a serpentine manner as it thudded audibly atop the island, reaching the point of frenzied climax so quickly it took even her by surprise. Then again, this was Alfie. He was a god with his mouth. She wailed incoherently as she came against his tongue, the burst of pleasure sending ebullient tingles throughout her body, swimming in ecstasy as she panted hard, the movements of his mouth lessening until he pulled away.

She grabbed his t shirt, yanking it over his head, Alfie stripping the rest of his attire off as she freed herself from the confines of her own remaining clothes, their kisses hungry and full of need as she wrapped her arms around his neck, his hands gripping as her thighs, pulling her further to the edge of the island, guiding his cock into her with a hard thrust.

Her heat yielded to him perfectly, his arms wrapping around her and hands stroking her back, keeping her steady as he began to arrow into her with sharp snaps of his hips. The lust he felt for her seeped over him like a mist, grasping her jaw, staring at her intently as he kissed her hotly, biting her lower lip, letting the soft flesh slide slowly from between the crush of his teeth, his other hand stroking tickled pitter patters up her spine, his mouth descending to sprinkle kisses across her chest.

Beth closed her eyes and exhaled a bliss filled sigh, rolling her hips against him as she slid up and down on his erection, immersed fully in the pleasure of him inside of her. He felt beyond exquisite. All thoughts of her visitor and subsequent creepy, unwanted package were far from her thoughts as the object of her burning desire and consuming love fucked her relentlessly upon the island.

“Fuck, oh god, ahhhh!” she panted, little exclamations still leaving her mouth thereafter until he silenced her with an explosively hot kiss, his hands pulling her against him and holding her tightly against his chest as he started to arrow her harder, his upward movements in perfect sync with each of her downward ones.

“Lean back, baby beast. Let me watch you, let me see how much you’re enjoying my cock.” Pushing her away. Beth arched her back and rested her hands behind her on the counter, giving him a full view of her, loving the view of her split wide around his hard, wet cock, His eyes shone brightly with desire, his mouth agape as he panted and groaned, lost in the pleasing view of how her body twitched and shuddered in response to him, rutting so deep inside her.

She really began to cry out when his movements became harder, ramming every last inch of himself up into her deep, burning wetness, watching her pant and exclaim without reserve as sweat began to bead their bodies. Her entire core felt alight with incredible pleasure, exacerbated further by the addition of his thumb at her clit, rubbing it in the kind of expert way she’d come to enjoy from him. He knew exactly how to touch a woman.

The fervid, rapid nature of their furiously paced fuck was geared more towards quick satisfaction than something to be savoured, both rushing towards their culmination, Beth shattering shortly before he did, her teeth bit onto the meat of his shoulder as her nails tore the skin from his back, rendering her a senseless, shaking mess.

“Fuck, you make me so damned cock drunk,” she panted, flopping back onto the island, her long, high pitched exclamation of ‘phewwwww!’ rousing his laughter, resting his head to her chest as he caught his breath.

“Want me to get you even more hammered on it?”

She sat up, grinning widely. “You’d bloody better.”

He did, too. Until three in the morning. Until they were tired and sore. He could survive on four hours of sleep for her.

44 notes · View notes

itscominghome · 3 years

Text

Mason Mount Masterlist

In Sickness and In Health

You and Mason have been living together throughout the whole of the pandemic and it’s started to calm down now. But when you test positive for Covid-19, Mason doesn’t care if he gets sick too, he just wants to look after you.

I'll Always Protect You

Since you and Mason made your relationship public three months ago, you have received negative and abusive messages from fans. But when everything takes a drastic turn, Mason is there to protect you and takes to social media afterwards to shut down all the abuse and threats.

Just Tell Me It's Not The End Of The Line

- ~Part 1~

Mason and the reader have an argument, but with Y/N already stressed from her mentally taxing job, disaster strikes for the young couple.

- ~Part 2~

The surgery has gone well, but Y/N is in a bad state. Mason makes sure that she knows he’s going nowhere.

Just a Dream

You have been struggling with night terrors for months. When Mason finally finds out, he does his best to comfort you.

"Is that you asking me out, City?"

You’re at the Chelsea vs Manchester City match as both a City supporter and the sister of Ben Chilwell. He introduces you to the rest of his team, something he had been wanting to do for a while. Upon introduction to the ‘boy who had a dream’ Mason Mount, it’s all just one big flirty argument.

Just For a TikTok

You ‘aren’t feeling well’ and fans want to see Mason’s reaction.

I've Got You To Keep Me Warm

Mason has warned you not to come to the match because of the winter winds and rain. But what would he do without his biggest cheerleader?

Remember, I Love You

No matter how many times you ask, Mason won’t stop coming home every so often with an expensive gift for you. And as grateful as you are for all of them, the one he gave you on the 19th July was the most special one yet.

I Like Your Boyfriend

When your little brother, Elliott, finally meets your boyfriend, Mason, his little blue heart is completely star-struck.

I'm Right Here

You and Mason have a movie night every Saturday and this week you watch a horror film. When you get scared, Mason whispers sweet nothings into your ear before carrying you up to bed.

I'm Yours

Mason has just got TikTok, but he wants everyone on the app to know that he's yours.

Side Chick

Now that Mason has TikTok, all the fans want some content of the both of you. So he decides to pull a prank on you.

Ball and Chain

On a night out, you spot a woman trying to flirt with your husband, but he shuts it down quite quickly, all while the cameras are watching so that everyone knows that he is yours.

All Over Again

Based off of One Direction's Over Again, you and Mason broke up weeks ago and the wound is still fresh for the both of you. But nothing would make either of you happier, than if you could just start it all over again.

Series:

Yellow

Highbury College. A-Level PE. Mason Mount.

Asher Reed is an A-Level student at Highbury College, studying PE, Travel and Tourism, and Photography to pursue a career in sports photography. Enter Mason Mount, the aspiring footballer, academy player for Chelsea FC and A-Level PE student, who can charm the hell out of any girl. And Asher is no different.

25 Days of Advent 2021 - 25 fics, spread across 25 days, for 3 separate players. Make sure to go check out my Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell Masterlists to the view the other fics from this series x.

A Christmas Too Hot To Handle

You’d bought a Match Attax advent calendar for yourself and Mason and you unpack him on the first day.

#mason mount #mm19 #chelsea fc #ktbffh #mason mount fluff

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siriusmydeer · 4 years

Text

late common room nights

ron weasley x fem!gryffindor!reader

summary: after hermione and harry leave the common room to go to bed, you and ron have to find something to keep yourselves... entertained

word count: 1.9k

warnings: first of all that summary is ass but, unprotected sex (DONT FORGET TO WRAP IT BEFORE U TAP IT), uh fingering?, RON IS A CONSENT KING, this was also my first smut so don’t expect anything amazing 😭, uhm underage drinking, lowkey an innocence kink, exhibitionism, and c*rmac again

“guys, ‘m out m’tired.” harry spoke, getting up from his seated place on the common room floor and stretching out his arms.

“me too, ‘ve got a new book to catch up on” she says, slowly walking over to the girls dormitory tiredly from the long school day.

“night y/n, night ron.” harry says, before making his way to the boys dormitory.

“so, ronald, what do we do now?” a smirk grazes your lips with an arched brow, chuckling a bit at the end of your sentence.

“oi! stop calling me that!” the boy basically cried out, grabbing a fluffy pillow from the vermillion couch throwing it at your chuckling body.

you catch it with ease shoving behind you, thinking of something to do with your best friend.

“how about.... 21 questions?” proposing your idea whilst pursing your lips, looking at the boy again with narrowed eyes.

“alright, darling. you first.” his voice lacing with an amused tone at your proposal, leaning back on his hands that laid comfortably on the mahogany floor meanwhile sitting across from you.

“ok...” your voice slightly trembling in nerves, whilst wringing your fingers together. “whats your favourite colour?” your voice swift, his ears barely catching the question. having a small internal battle with yourself for chickening out from your original question.

“navy blue..., what’s your favourite memory?” his sentence pausing in the middle, attempting to maintain eye contact with his azure irises.

not bad, you quickly thought while trying to think of another question. a chortle falls from your lips thinking of the amusing memory, “that one unsupervised quidditch match when i was knocked off m’broom and broke my foot”

“the one where i had to bring you to pomfrey at two in the morning and serve a months detention for being out past curfew.” you both reminisce at the memory.

as the night progressed the both of you passed around the fire-whisky the questions got bolder, and to say the least dirtier.

“okay... okay...” giggle escapes you, the alcohol clearly in your system. ron chuckles at your disgruntled face, leaning closer to your face wiggling his eyebrows.

“have you ever like... done it?” a tinge of awkwardness runs rapidly throughout the room, you giggle again nervously taking another swig of fire whisky.

“it..?” he looks at you cluelessly, waiting for more information. you widen your eyes at him like you’re trying, and failing, to send him a mental message.

after a few seconds he looks at you with widened eyes, a small chuckle leaves his mouth as he takes the fire whisky from you. “merlin y/l/n i didn’t know you wanted me like that” he says taking a swig.

“no! i don’t!” you attempt to explain, with a vermillion running up the expanse of your next directly to the apples of your cheeks. “i’m just.... curious, because i know lavender has it bad for you” you attempt to cover your tracks, but your intentions already revealed.

“yes i have, for your information. not with her though.” he says with a sassy remark, passing you the bottle again. “have you?” he spoke while eyeing you suspiciously.

“well now i’m embarrassed.” you divert your eyes to the staircase. “oh so, you haven’t! my oh my, i guess you and mclaggen never got that far.” he adds with a raised brow and smirk.

“for your information, we never did anything because he was busy gazing at every other female in his vicinity” you punctuate and return to his sassy-tone, and a hair flick. you steady your eyes back to ron who looks at you amused.

“if i was with you i wouldn’t look at anyone else” he mumbles, gaze strictly on the floor his face matching his hair colour; a bright scarlet hue.

“what?” you look at him, widen eyes, face flushed and hair dishevelled. thinking you heard wrong, scooting closer so you can pick up his head with your thumb and pointer finger.

“i said...” he takes a deep breath before continuing, “that if you were mine, you would be the only person i’d look at” he says nervously, grabbing your wrist looking up at you.

you inhale and close your eyes for a second thinking about every single possibility this night could lead too. you choose wisely and opened your eyes looking in his direction finally choosing your words.

“prove it.” your tone stern, looking in his cerulean irises to prove your sincerity.

after that he doesn’t hesitate to capture your lips with his, moving together while subtly maneuvering you to straddle his waist. he opens his mouth so swiping against the strawberry chapstick that was worn into your lips and pleading for entry beneath your lips.

your mouths synced together in a deep harmony while both his larger hands came to grapple at your hips to keep you steady on the planes of his thighs. your core just above his clothed cock, you sink down slightly swivelling your hips slightly to create friction.

“bloody hell.” you hear him mumble while your lips were slightly seperated before rejoining them, his slowly growing tighter at the slight friction. one of your dainty fingers tugging at his reed tresses and the other on his placed on his jaw. you move forward again and create more friction against his strained erection, a low groan falling from his mouth.

you had a butterfly feeling erupting in your stomach, as one of his hands made its way into your hair giving it a small tug. a barely audible moan left your mouth, ron pulled away just a millimeter to look into your eyes.

“i want you, right here, right now.”

“what if someone see’s-“

“let them.”

he captured your lips again, placing both of his large hands right under your thighs maneuvering you to the nearest vermillion couch to lay you on. He hovered over you before kissing down your neck, sucking marks on the nearest skin he could find.

you knew you would have to cover them up in the morning, but you didn’t care. you could only focus on his lips sucking on your skin, and tangling your fingers into his fiery red hair.

he kissed up from your collarbone, kissing the fresh red marks that laid beautifully on your skin before hovering over your face again.

“you’re beautiful, darling.”

he leaned in again, tongues prodding at each other lustfully, while his warming taste of spearmint and pumpkin bleeds onto your tongue. one hand aggressively gripping your hip and the other one fiddling with the buttons of your uniform top, robes and ties already discarded when you entered the common room.

“are you sure you wanna do this, m’love?” he asked gently, affirming this is what your intentions were. hearing the repetitive pet names conform out of his mouth sending shockwaves of butterflies erupting through the warming of your belly, mixing with arousal.

“i want you ron, all of you.”

you leaned forward pushing your lips together in a passionate kiss, slotting them together the mess of the kiss being your last concern; while you both worked and attempted to rid each other’s clothes off. both of you left in your undergarments, he disconnected your lips for a moment to take a look at your body and seeing the heavy breaths you took from the frequent moving of your torso.

the eyes the stretch marks on your hips, the small scars from quidditch on your body, the birth marks scattered on your body and he thought he had never seen anything more beautiful.

“w-what?” you stumbled on your words, as he looked upon your body thinking he was judging you. you instinctively almost went to cover yourself, he quickly grabbed your wrist pinning it beside your head before looking deep into your irises.

“you’re the most stunning thing, i’ve ever seen.”

he went to kiss the column of your neck again, slowing down before he mumbled again.

“i want to get you ready for me first, can i do that?”

“please.”

he took off the rings on his middle and ring finger seeing the callouses from the handling of his quidditch broom, and slowly slipping them on your agile fingers and leaning in towards the shell of your ear.

“hold on to those for me, darling.”

he kissed down your bra-clad chest, to your stomach and down to where you needed him most. he slipped off your panties, throwing them on the common room floor before kissing up your thigh.

he looked at your glistening core with lust, his pupils blowing wide before running a finger down your wet folds. you let out a breathy whine before he continued, slowly slipping his middle finger into you and slowly pulsing it in and out.

“ron- fuck.” you hissed in pleasure, from being touched for the first time. “you like that, princess?” ron mocked, seeing your face slightly contort.

a small whine slipped from your slipped from your lips as a response, before he continued his torture on your cunt. you bit your lip, trying to keep quiet hoping nobody from upstairs would hear ron pleasuring you.

he kept a steady rhythm, pulsing his fingers in and out of you knowing how hard it was for you to keep quiet. he kissed your thoughts and stomach while teasing you by speeding up his pace in and out of you.

you let out a moan escaping your lips before biting them harshly,

“come for me darling, come all over my fingers”

you let out a loud moan in response, unable contain it anymore. you felt a wave of euphoria wash over you as you came for him, gripping whatever was close to you. he puts his fingers in his mouth with an exaggerated moan before leaning over you again kissing your lips, making you taste yourself feeling arousal wash again all over you.

he kissed back up your stomach before his hand slid up towards your back, undoing your bra before throwing it towards the floor, along with the matching set of panties. he looked at you in adoration of your naked body, before looking up at you,

“are you ready, angel?”

“but i want to help you too, ron”

you said leaning to grab at his briefs before he grabbed your wrist in his hand, and interlocking your fingers.

“tonight is about you, your my priority.” his tone was hoarse but a mix of gentle lacing it, the last sentences being whispered in your ear. you tried to suppress a shiver before grabbing his face and looking into his sheer-like azure irises.

“i want you inside me” your voice slow and and heaving, you spoke then kissing him again. he moved up, placing himself between your legs and leaning on both of his forearms, one of his hands tangled in your tresses and the other grabbing at your hip.

his cock hard, almost painful and leaking with precum started to slip into you, only managing the tip in before a whine escaped your lips while digging your nails into ron’s flexed bicep.

“it’s ok, m’right here”

he took your nod as a sign to keep going before slowly pushing fully into you. at first his strokes only small, barely there. he didn’t want you to hurt, he adored you and he just wanted to make you feel good.

“ron, please. go faster” you said gripping his hair in one of your hands, and his dipping your nails again in his bicep with the other. he slowly started to build up a pace, he knew you both wouldn’t last long considering this was your first time and the girl he loved was withering in pleasure under him, and only pleasured by him.

he let out a grunt into your neck, as he littered it in kisses while murmuring small praises into your ear. you tried to suppress your moans by biting into your lip, hoping hermione wouldn’t come looking for you.

“ron i’m gonna- fuck”

“me too, come with me” he said in between small grunts. you both let out low moans at the same time before he let white ropes of cum shoot into you and another wave of euphoria washed over you, harder this time. he laid beside you, both panting as he grabbed a blanket covering the both of you. he leant his head on your shoulder, his arm winded around your waist, pulling you closer to him and kissing your shoulder.

“keep the rings, darling, they look better on you.” he said in between pants.

you looked at him before speaking,

“is this the part where we separate and go to our dorms?” you mumbled, scared of his answer.

“no.” he whined, “i don’t know about you, but m’tired” he said sleepily, closing his eyes.

“we’re also naked, the first years will be mortified-“

“don’t care. they can close their eyes” he said, with sass.

“your brothers and all of our friends will tease us for all eternity” you teased with a laugh.

“they’ll be more relived that the pining is done.”

“pining over who?” you said, arching your brow.

“YOU. merlin woman, you are blind.” he picked his head off your shoulder to look at you before putting his head in the crook of your neck, giving it a small peck.

“mortified, ron. i’m telling you—“

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shhhhyoursister · 3 years

Text

enemies to lovers/band!au

okay yeah heres the final one, the big boy, the one im probably proudest of, i really really hope you guys like it!!

Matteo was lucky that the conductor liked him, because showing up 10 minutes late to the first rehearsal of the year was bad, even for him. Matteo wasn’t known to be the most responsible member of the band, and usually the only thing he could be counted on to do right every rehearsal was show up, and show up on time. He adjusted his grip on his baritone case as he sped down the hall of the music department, cursing as he checked the time on his phone again, and when he got to the door of the theater they rehearsed in, he cracked it open as quietly as he could.

“Ah, Matteo!” the conductor yelled from the stage, and Matteo flinched before stepping fully into the room, “You decided to show up! I was worried you quit after playing that really loud wrong note at the concert last semester.”

“Which one?” Matteo joked back, knowing that if it was any other professor he would have just apologized and rushed to put his instrument together. He was on a first name basis with Rick, who was probably the most laid back member of the music faculty. Some of the players on stage laughed at the exchange, and Matteo smiled as he popped his case open.

“Just hurry up, we do actually need a full band to rehearse,” Rick said, turning back to his stand with a chuckle, “and poor David looks like he’s going to explode if we don’t start soon.”

Matteo rolled his eyes. As if that would make him set his baritone up faster. He ignored the second wave of laughter that followed the conductor’s comment and grabbed the folder with his music, and made his way onto the stage. He took his seat next to the other baritones, in the third chair, and tried to ignore the glare he could feel coming from the clarinet section.

Matteo was a little upset that he had missed his favorite part of each rehearsal; before Rick got there, when people were still whispering to their stand partners, some quietly tuning their instruments or practicing difficult measures, some tapping their feet and counting out the beats. It felt more alive than when everyone was coming together to play one piece, and while Matteo loved the sound of a full band playing beautiful music, he really needed that calm before the storm. It reminded him that the music that he listened to came from people like him, who had to practice and tune and count and focus to produce the notes and phrases that seemed to flow so naturally.

He risked a glance over at David when Rick asked him to play a note so he could tune the band to it, and, like always, felt a little bit of a shiver run through him when he watched David take a deep breath before playing out a long, perfectly in-tune note. He knew it wasn’t only because of the sound of the clarinet, which Matteo secretly thought was the nicest sounding of all the wind instruments. Although David couldn’t stand him, and Matteo didn’t have too many kind feelings towards him either, it was hard to deny that first of all, David was an amazing musician, and second of all, much less importantly, he was really hot.

Matteo didn’t feel bad for thinking it. Every person in the band who was into men was into David. Matteo would hear girls whispering about him while they were setting up their flutes and oboes, and there was the one guy in the saxophone section who had been trying to get his number for a year. It was old news, but Matteo couldn’t help himself from staring at David when he had long measures of rests, and had to admit that David was the cause of his distraction during some rehearsals.

Rick finished tuning the band, and had them flip to the piece that Matteo was the least confident in. He looked up and took a breath with the whole band when the conductor brought his arms up, and dropped his eyes back to the notes a split second before the downbeat.

Inevitably, Matteo got to a part in the song where he had four measures of rest, and he leaned back in his chair a bit and stretched his neck out. He was counting on his fingers and tapping his foot to the tempo and managed to come back in at the right time, only for Rick to cut them off as he flipped aggressively through the papers on his stand.

“Where is the second page? Why do I only have half of the score here?” He asked angrily, and then huffed and said, “Okay, everyone take out the next piece. David, take over for me.”

Matteo rolled his eyes as Rick walked off the stage, and David took his place in front of the band. David always got the most cocky, smug look whenever he was asked to conduct, and some people rolled their eyes because they knew David was harsher, faster, and much less forgiving than Rick was.

“Okay guys, remember we tried to play this last semester, but some people couldn’t keep up,” his eyes flicked to Matteo, who just shrugged, and then smiled as the frown on David’s face deepened and he continued, “as long as everyone watches me, we’ll be able to get through it. Let’s start at the beginning.”

That won’t be too hard, Matteo thought to himself, and smiled before bringing his lips to the mouthpiece.

They got through the first half of the song with no issues, David going slower than usual to let people warm up to playing it again. Matteo knew that the only reason he hadn’t messed up yet was because his eyes were glued to his sheet music, but he saw that the tempo was changing in a few measures so he would have to look up. Once he did, he caught sight of the serious expression on David’s face, his eyes scanning over the band and darting down to the score in front of him, his arms waving and emphasizing different beats in a fluid and practiced way, keeping the tempo while cuing the other instruments to come in.

“Stop, stop! You were supposed to come in there, baritones, what happened? Are we playing too slow for you?”

Matteo (and everyone else) knew that when David was yelling at the baritones, he was really yelling at Matteo. His animosity was known amongst the other students in the band, so they weren’t surprised to hear a critique aimed at that section of the low brass. That was confirmed when Matteo looked up to see David glaring directly at him, his hand that wasn’t holding the baton clenched tightly around the stand.

They got through the rest of the song with no incidents, Matteo purposefully playing quieter to avoid making any loud mistakes. Rick came back just as David was berating them for speeding up at the end, and he clapped him on the shoulder before waving the missing pages of his score in the air.

“Thank you, David, for re-traumatizing your bandmates. Let’s go back to the first piece, and I promise I won’t yell as much as he did.”

The band laughed and David chuckled (at least he’s self aware, Matteo thought to himself) as he took his seat, with one final glance in Matteo’s direction. They could both see each other from where they were sitting, David being at the end of the second row and Matteo diagonal across from him in the back. He watched as David settled back into his seat and picked his clarinet up, his tongue flicking out to wet the reed, and when David’s eyes shifted back over to him he blushed and looked down at the floor. He scowled, angry that he got caught staring.

***

He struggled through the first week, playing confidently when he could and quieting down whenever he got lost until he could figure out where they were again. Sometimes he found himself so confused he would whisper out of the corner of his mouth, “Where are we?” to his stand partner, and she would roll her eyes before pointing out the correct measure.

The next week of rehearsals, Matteo started out on a much better foot. He was running early as opposed to late, and he hummed to himself as he strolled calmly down the hall leading to the theater. There was one measure of their newest song that he just couldn’t get right, and he flipped open his folder as he walked, knowing that the page with that measure would be at the front. He stopped paying attention to where he was walking, tapping out the beat of the notes on his hip, and just as he turned the corner into the room he crashed into someone leaving, and heard an annoyed, “Are you serious?”

He tensed when he recognized David’s voice, and looked up to see the exact glare he was expecting aimed directly at him. He almost missed the stack of papers that David had dropped, and only noticed when one sheet landed perfectly on top of his open folder.

“Sorry,” Matteo muttered, not knowing what else to say, “let me help.”

“No, I’ll do it,” David snapped back, the glare on his face darkening a little as he snatched the paper on top of Matteo’s folder and said, “I had them organized by section, and by part. You’d just fuck it up. Go set up.”

Matteo took a deep breath through his nose, tired of being torn down every single time David spoke to him, and he took another breath before glaring back and saying, “I wouldn’t fuck it up. I know how sheet music works.”

“Yeah, but if Rick wanted you doing any of this I’m sure he would have asked,” David scoffed, kneeling down so he could gather the papers together, “but he didn’t.”

Matteo bit his lip as felt something angry building in his stomach, and he knew it wasn’t professional or smart of him to do but he couldn’t help but bite back, “Look, we all know that you’re just using us to set yourself up for the future, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t give you the excuse to be a fucking asshole all the time.”

He stormed off before he could see David’s reaction, and set his baritone up with trembling fingers. He was already in his seat and tuned up by the time David stalked into the theater with all of the papers, and Matteo watched with a smug grin as David quietly apologized to Rick for being late before handing off the sheet music and taking his seat. He grabbed his clarinet, his fingers pressing down on the keys harder than was probably good for them, and shot Matteo one final, piercing glare before turning to his music. Matteo smiled to himself as the conductor got everyone’s attention.

***

Things got a little more tense after that.

Getting even more on the bad side of the most talented, and most respected (and most feared) musician in the band was not Matteo’s best idea, but he had no idea how to fix it, and didn’t even know if he cared enough to.

Matteo didn’t know exactly what he was going to do once he graduated, but assumed that he’d figure something out. Pit bands were always looking for fresh talent, so he assumed that he would join one of those and get some menial job on the side while he waited to see where his life would lead. He knew that David, on the other hand, had a plan, and it seemed like their interaction in the hallway led David to believe that Matteo was the one thing standing in his way.

Another week of rehearsals went by, Matteo trying his best not to mess up, and failing almost every session. He knew that his conductor was starting to get a little frustrated, and he didn’t know how to explain that his new bout of issues weren’t coming from a lack of understanding the music; it was just difficult to play when you could feel someone openly glaring at you anytime the first clarinets had rests in the music. He and David hadn’t spoken or interacted at all since the incident in the hallway. They had never really spoken before that, so it wasn’t too unusual, but that amount of glaring was new.

And after a day or two, Matteo started glaring back. He would only do it when David wasn’t looking at him, either focused on the music or counting or watching the conductor, and it felt like the smallest form of retaliation that Matteo was willing to participate in. He knew that he couldn’t talk back to Rick, and he was doing all he could to avoid having to actually speak with David, so the glaring was a good alternative.

It was also a bit of a problem, the glaring. Sometimes Matteo would get lost in his own anger, resulting in him getting lost in the music, and Rick would stop the band and tell the baritones to pay attention to the music, not their bandmates, and Matteo would whip his head back to his music, his cheeks red at being caught.

It came to a head during one rehearsal, the first rehearsal since the glaring had started where Rick had to step out of the room. He handed David his baton and walked off with a wave of his hand, and Matteo noticed David smirking in his direction as he took up the position in front of the band.

“Okay, we’re going to start at measure 46,” David said, his eyes yet again scanning over every member of the band, squinting a little as they passed over Matteo, “the low brass has really been struggling with this section, and I’m going to take it faster so we can see exactly who is having trouble.”

Matteo’s eyes widened as he looked over the part David was referencing, realizing quickly that it was the hardest set of measures for the baritone section out of all of their pieces. He looked up again, trying to look determined despite the nerves starting to make his fingers twitch on the valves of his baritone, and caught David smirking at him again. David raised the baton, and Matteo lifted his baritone to his mouth and tried to focus his eyes on the music.

He managed to play through the first few measures correctly, but his nerves got the best of him and he messed up in one of the worst ways you can mess up as a musician; playing during a full-band rest. He felt his entire body tense up as half the band turned to stare at him, and he knew that it was the perfect excuse for David to go off on him.

“I heard that in the baritones, don’t let me hear it again.” David said sternly, the tip of the baton pointing right at Matteo. He looked mad, but there was something slightly encouraging there too, like he was trying to give Matteo another chance.

Matteo was surprised but grateful that his mistake didn’t send David into a fit and really tried to take that second chance and run with it. They started playing again, and Matteo made it through that measure, and then managed to mess up on the next one. He held one note too long and then played a sharp instead of a flat, and David didn’t stop the band but his head flicked to Matteo and he gave him a look that made his fingers freeze, and it took him a measure to come back in because for some reason that look scared him more than the many critiques and looks he had gotten in the past. David looked furious, as if Matteo was messing up intentionally.

They played through the rest of the section, Matteo getting less tense the more measures he played right, and just as they reached the last measure Rick came back into the theater, the door creaking a little behind him, but enough that it distracted Matteo, who not only played the last note wrong, but he felt his face heat up at the monstrous honk that came out the bell of his instrument.

“Matteo!” David snapped, and his other hand grabbed the top half of the baton and quickly bent it, snapping that as well.

Most of the band gasped, Matteo included. David seemed shocked himself, staring down at the fractured wood in his hands. Rick walked up to him and without saying a word, grabbed the two pieces, and turned to face the band with a stoic expression.

“I think I’ll call it for today, everyone. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, before dropping a hand onto David’s shoulder and looking up at Matteo and saying, “You two, in my office.”

Matteo gulped, and tried to ignore the look on David’s face as he got out of his seat and made his way over to his case. He put his baritone away slowly, watching as the rest of the band filtered out through the main doors, some shooting him sympathetic looks as they walked out. He might not have been the best member of the band, but he was nice enough that most people liked him enough, and probably felt bad knowing that he was about to get screamed at. He looked away when he saw David walk into Rick’s office hot on his heels, already saying something that would probably get Matteo in more trouble.

He made his way over to the office once he had all of his stuff together, and took a deep breath before knocking on the door and walking in. He entered and saw Rick sitting at his desk, looking annoyed, and David standing in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked like he had just finished ranting, his face red and his chest heaving, and he turned to fix Matteo with a glare as he walked into the room.

“I don’t know why two of my best musicians hate each other as much as you guys do,” he started, and Matteo’s eyes widened a bit at the bluntness of his statement along with the compliment, “but you need to work it out before next week.”

“Sir, I don’t know if I’d say he’s one of the best-” David started, his voice hiding the hint of a pretentious laugh, and before thinking about it Matteo cut him off.

“You don’t know shit about how I play.”

David turned to him with tight lips and said, “Well, I’ve conducted you before, so I think I have a pretty good idea.”

“Yeah, how could I forget being verbally abused.”

“It wasn’t abuse, if you aren’t going to play right I’m going to say something and I’m sorry if I don't sugarcoat it. I focus on being right, not on being nice.”

“Yeah, obviously.” Matteo muttered under his breath, and just as David turned to him to snap back at him, Rick clapped his hands together, loudly.

“Okay, I know what we’re going to do to fix this.”

***

That was how Matteo found himself the next day, an hour before band was supposed to start, during his only free period of the day, making his way to the music building so he could get to the practice rooms. He was walking slow, making sure to be on time but exactly on time, because he didn’t want to spend a second longer with David than he had to.

To their chagrin, Rick decided that the best way for the two to get along was for David to help Matteo figure out the parts of the music that he was struggling with. He had set up mandatory twice a week private sessions for both of them. Matteo had a feeling they wouldn’t make it past the first week without screaming at each other.

Matteo got to the door of the room he was meant to meet David in, and he could hear shuffling so he knew David was there already. He rolled his eyes and braced himself before pushing into the room.

“Put your instrument together,” David said, not even looking at Matteo as he set two chairs up in front of a stand, “ and get your music out. Let’s not be here any longer than we have to be.”

David finally turned around when Matteo didn’t move, and raised an eyebrow at him. Matteo had been expecting the hostility, and knew what he wanted to say in response.

“If we’re being forced to do this,” he said calmly, dropping his baritone case on the chair and popping it open, “I’m not going to let you be a dick to me. You need to be here just as much as I do. If you’re mean I’ll walk out, and then we’re both fucked. Don’t test me.”

He turned and started setting his baritone up, not waiting for David to react or respond to what he said. He only looked up at him once he sat in the chair and had his music on the stand, and he was surprised to see David look down at the ground, his face almost completely neutral except for the corners of his lips, which were twitching up a little.

“Fine,” David said, sitting down in the other chair, moving his leg quickly when his knee bumped into Matteo’s, “Play it right and I won’t be a dick.”

Matteo rolled his eyes but figured that was the best he was going to get, so he took a deep breath before bringing his mouthpiece up to his lips.

He played through the first few measures that David pointed at, trying to be as quick as he could while still following the tempo David was tapping out and playing the notes correctly. He knew that he had nowhere to hide if he messed up. Not that he really did during their bigger rehearsals, but he also felt much more confident playing by himself. He knew he wasn’t going to mess up the timing of anything, but he was worried about a set of measures near the end that had a beat that was so complicated he couldn’t figure it out.

He messed up right away when they got to it and he stopped, expecting David to make some harsh comment that would have him snapping back, but was surprised when his only reaction was, “Go back a few measures, try it again.”

He tried again and messed it up the same way, and then tried again, before putting his baritone down with a huff. He was frustrated at himself for messing it up, especially for messing it up in front of David, knowing that there was no way he wouldn’t say something sarcastic or rude after Matteo messed up for the third time.

“Why are you counting it like that?” David asked, his voice surprisingly devoid of any mocking or cruel tone. He sounded genuinely curious, but Matteo was still wary.

“I don’t know, because that’s how it looks?” He answered quickly, rolling his eyes, shifting uncomfortably under his horn.

“If I’m promising not to be a dick, you need to promise to take this seriously,” David said, turning to look directly at Matteo for the first time since the lesson had started, “I know you don’t really care about all this, but I do, so if that means teaching you how to fucking count I’ll do it. Now, play it again, but right.”

“Who says I don’t care?” Matteo asked, keeping his baritone firmly in his lap, “And I know how to count. That measure just makes no fucking sense.”

“Yes it does, you just aren’t counting it right,” David said, his voice tight, and he took a breath before saying more calmly, “here, give me your horn, I’ll show you.”

Matteo hesitated before handing it over, and he sighed a little in relief when David took Matteo’s mouthpiece off and took another one out of his bag.

Matteo was always impressed at the sound that David was able to pull out of any instrument he touched. There were multiple times where their conductor would ask David to grab an extra trumpet or sax or flute or set of mallets for a marimba, and would shove him wherever the band needed extra help. The only reason he never sent him to sit with Matteo’s section was because they didn’t have any extra horns, and Matteo was beyond grateful for that.

David pointed at the measure, and said, “See, you’re playing this,” he played out the beat that Matteo had been playing and then stopped and said, “but that amount of notes doesn’t fit in the measure, you’re adding an extra one in the middle. It’s supposed to sound like this,” he raised the baritone to his lips again and played out the measure, tapping his foot loudly as he continued playing so Matteo could hear how that measure fit into the rest of the phrase.

He gave Matteo the horn back after switching the mouthpieces again, and Matteo hesitated before starting to play again, and when he got to the measure and played it the way David showed him, it flowed perfectly into the next one and he even saw David smile a little.

“Yeah, you got it that time,” David said, and Matteo smiled back at him before turning back to his music as David said, “now let’s fix this other part.”

***

After a couple of weeks of the private sessions, Matteo was starting to sense a pattern. They would be completely civil during their one-on-one sessions, David only critiquing when necessary and only with comments that were actually helpful, and then they would get to band and it would start all over again. Matteo would get lost, Rick would snap at his section, he would look over and see David glaring at him or shaking his head in disappointment.

He didn’t know why it was getting to him in a way that it hadn’t before. He always knew that David was a little tougher on him than others, but he had really been hoping that the private sessions would stop the glares and the looks and the scoffs whenever he messed up. If anything, the private sessions only made the actual rehearsals worse.

The second boiling point was reached their third week of the private sessions. Matteo had sat through his perfectly cordial hour with David before band, and was even looking forward to playing that day. He felt like he had finally nailed the set of measures that he and David had been working on so he was excited for Rick to hear him play it right. He was so giddy about it that he even smiled when he caught David looking at him from across the band. David had raised a confused eyebrow at him before shifting his gaze back to the front of the band, and Matteo blushed and looked down at the ground, feeling a little silly.

Again, after a little while the conductor had to step away, and again David took his place at the stand, and picked up the baton. He looked right at Matteo as he told the band that they were going to start a few measures before the one Matteo had been messing up, and he sat up a little straighter and returned the look, nodding when David finished speaking. David nodded the slightest bit back at him before raising his arms, and Matteo breathed with the rest of the band before bringing his mouthpiece up to his lips.

And it was like nothing had changed. Matteo found himself getting lost watching David’s waving his arms in all directions, wild but completely in control of himself and the band. He missed one note and David’s eyes flicked to him, and held there as Matteo panicked and stumbled his way through the measure that he had spent two weeks of private lessons fixing.

He saw David’s jaw clench and he cut the band off with a sharp wave of his hand, before turning his full body in Matteo’s direction to say, “So the last few weeks have been a total waste of my time?”

Matteo didn’t think before standing up and walking off the stage, and out of the theater. He ignored the whispers and looks that followed him out, didn’t think about when he was going to be able to go back and get his case and bag and music, and he walked to the hallway of practice rooms and entered one, slamming the door behind him.

***

He emailed Rick and got permission to skip rehearsal the next day, the conductor ending the email with We really need to figure this out before your issues with David end up hurting the rest of the band. Matteo had read the response and collapsed back into bed, glaring over at his baritone (in the case, his roommate and friends brought his stuff out for him after he left).

It was also the first night of the first concert in the music department. Matteo wasn’t performing but he was required to go, and as he got himself ready in his appropriate concert attire, he worried over the fact that David was going to be there, to perform and to watch. Matteo couldn’t think of something he’d like to do less than watch the dude who embarrassed him in front of their entire band perform and get endless praise for it.

Matteo sat quietly next to his friends throughout the concert, and when David walked onto the stage, he felt himself tense up. His best friend Jonas, a trumpet player who was more than aware of the situation in and out of rehearsal, put a hand on his leg and squeezed, trying to offer a bit of comfort. Matteo smiled tightly at him as David lifted his clarinet to his lips and took a deep breath.

No matter how much Matteo hated him, he couldn’t ignore the fact that David was the best clarinet player he had ever heard. It was like his body and his clarinet were formed together, the way he breathed sound through it and moved around it, how quickly he could run his fingers over the keys and play the most complicated string of notes without a single flaw. Matteo found himself entranced by the song David played, and he opened his eyes when the last note faded out into the otherwise silent theater, and he watched as David kept his clarinet up for a beat after the song finished before his eyes opened, and they looked directly into Matteo’s as the audience clapped around him.

He looked away as quickly as he could, ignoring the face Jonas made at his sudden movement, and tried to focus his attention completely on the girl who stepped up next with her violin. He only let his eyes flick to David once more before the concert was over, and while his view was obscured because David was sitting a few rows ahead of him, Matteo could see his fingers twitching in his lap, probably resisting the urge to make the player follow his lead. The concert was over after that last girl, and Matteo turned to his friends quickly to stop himself from staring in David’s direction again.

Coincidentally, (or not at all) the night of the first concert in the music department was also the night of the first party being held by some people in the percussion section, a couple of guys who had a big house that was perfect for hosting a bunch of drunk but mild-mannered music majors.

Matteo had barely even wanted to go, knowing that his reputation amongst the rest of the band was not a great one. He wasn’t hated, but most only knew of him because of the amount of times per rehearsal the conductor would have to stop and critique the baritones (him) or tell the baritones (him) what measure they were on, and now because of all the new drama with David. He also didn’t want to face his bandmates after walking out during the last rehearsal, but the pushing and prodding of his friends made him reluctantly agree.

“Dude, we’re gonna get you so fucked up you can’t even think about what an asshole Schreibner is,” Carlos said as they made their way to the house.

Matteo snorted as they turned onto the correct block, and they quickly spotted the house that was holding the party. There were lights and music loud enough that they could hear it down the street, and Carlos and Abdi started whooping before running over to it.

“You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to,” Jonas said when Matteo hesitated near the front door.

Matteo waited another second before shoving into the house, and throwing back over his shoulder, “Who cares about that asshole, I want to drink!”

And drink he did. Matteo was on his third beer after only twenty minutes, and he was considering it a win that he hadn’t seen David yet. He could feel himself getting more drunk, and didn’t know what he would even say to David if he saw him. He was glad that the little corner of the room he and his friends had grabbed seemed to be pretty hidden away.

Matteo was handed a joint after a little while and he grabbed it quickly, sticking the end in his mouth and taking a deep hit. He closed his eyes as he blew the smoke out his nose, and took another hit as he opened his eyes slowly, and saw David walk into the room. He didn’t seem to notice Matteo though, seemingly focused on getting to someone that was standing in the opposite corner.

“I didn’t know that David and Leonie are friends,” Carlos said quietly, staring over at the two, “she’s in the orchestra with Kiki. I heard she’s just like David but worse.”

“Matteo would love her, then,” Jonas said, ruffling his hair, and he flipped him off before taking another hit and passing the joint along.

“Why are talented and attractive people such assholes,” Matteo said, and when the three other boys turned to him, their eyes wide, he asked, “what?”

“Did you just say something nice about David?” Abdi asked with a grin, and Matteo rolled his eyes as the boys all oooohed.

“Me saying he’s attractive and talented isn’t nice, especially when that was the lead up to me calling him an asshole,” Matteo said, grabbing the joint when it was handed back to him, “I don’t have a single nice thing to say about David. He can play good, but he’s a piece of shit and nobody is going to hire someone with his kind of attitude. He thinks just ‘cause he can play and wave his arms around in the air that he’s going to become a famous musician and conductor, but he needs to work on being a decent fucking person first.”

His rant wasn’t the most coherent, but it felt good to get off his chest, and he leaned back against the wall and took a hit to emphasize his point. The boys were quiet, and when Matteo raised an eyebrow at Jonas, he tilted his head to the front of the group where David was standing, scowling at him.

“We need to fucking talk.” David growled out through his teeth, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, looking like he was going to vibrate out of his skin with the amount of tension in his body.

Matteo said nothing but handed the joint off, and followed after David when he turned and walked out of the room. He was done. At that point he didn’t give a fuck if he got kicked from the program, or if he was fucking kicked out of the school, because he and David needed to settle whatever their issue was then and there.

David led him down the hall and he knocked loudly on a door before shoving it open, and grabbed Matteo’s wrist to pull him inside. Matteo noticed it was a bathroom, and quickly glanced around to see if anybody was watching them. He wondered what they thought was happening. Someone in the band would probably recognize the stiff way David was holding his body, and see Matteo trailing almost lazily behind him, and know that something was about to go down. But someone else might just see two boys going into a bathroom together at a party, and come to a completely different conclusion. Matteo almost laughed at the thought. Yeah, he was gay, but he didn’t know if David was. He didn’t know if David even had the time or patience to date or hook up with anyone.

He could tell that his apparent apathy towards the situation was just pissing David off further, so he closed the door slowly, not even locking it before leaning back against it with a bored sigh. He definitely wasn’t actually as calm as he looked; he crossed his arms across his chest so the shaking in his hands would be less obvious, and it was taking a lot of effort to keep his face neutral when he saw how angry David was. He didn’t think David was going to hurt him or anything, but he was terrified about what the fight could lead to when it came to his position in the band.

“I don’t know what your fucking problem is, Matteo, but I don’t have any kind of attitude. I care about what I do and I want it to be done right. It’s not my fault that you don’t care enough to actually try, but it is really fucking with my experience here,” David said quietly, his voice a little too calm for his red face and clenched fists, “I can’t conduct a band when I need to stop every five seconds because you lose your place.”

Matteo snorted, and leaned his head back against the door. It was taking him a minute to figure out what he wanted to say and he was surprised that David was quiet, like he was giving Matteo the time to think.

“David,” Matteo said, after figuring out what was probably the dumbest part of the whole issue, “you’re good enough to be hired anywhere. Me being a shitty band member won’t stop you,” he paused for a moment, and then picked his head up and said, “And I do try. I’m good. The only reason I’m still here is because they know I’m good. I just don’t need to prove it like you do.”

He was glad that his mind was clear enough to get his exact point across, and he watched David as his words sunk in, realizing that David had probably drank too, considering the way he was leaning back on the counter, his legs a little unsteady. David stared at Matteo for a minute before standing up straighter.

“I don’t need to prove anything,” he said, “I know I’m good.”

“Then why are you such a dick?” Matteo asked, “Like, specifically to me? Yeah, you yell at everyone but you’re just mean to me. Are you homophobic or something?”

Matteo couldn’t stop the thought from drifting through his mind and out his drunk mouth. Maybe David was, and there was going to be no way to solve the issue. What the fuck would he tell Rick?

“What? No, I’m not homophobic,” David said, looking like he wanted to laugh at the idea but was too confused to, “I’m trans.”

“Trans people can be homophobic.” Matteo said, shrugging, knowing that it was a stupid point to make. He was honestly just happy for a break in the tension.

David actually laughed, before tilting his head and smirking at Matteo and saying, “Trust me, I’m not. That would be kinda weird considering I’m also not straight.”

The way he said it made something hot bloom in Matteo’s stomach, and he hated his stupid, gay brain for reacting. That statement combined with the look on David’s face, and the fact that despite their stupid rivalry David was still really fucking hot, was making Matteo lose sight of the original conversation a little.

“You’re hot.” He said, verbalizing his thoughts before he could stop himself, and then he clamped his mouth shut and bit his lip, half terrified that David was going to get angrier, and half glad that he was just getting everything off his chest thanks to the alcohol in his system.

David fell back against the counter, the smirk dropping from his face, and he blinked before stammering out, “Uh. What?”

“I think you heard me,” Matteo said, shrugging, and then he looked off to the side before looking back at David’s confused face and saying again, “you’re hot.”

“Why- what does that have to do with any of this?” David asked, and Matteo couldn’t tell if he was angrier but he sounded different, in a way that made him stand up against the door a little.

He just shrugged again, and then stared at David as he tried to work through whatever was going on in his head. Matteo watched as he stood still for a minute, his fists loosening and tightening at his sides, and he watched as David’s eyes scanned up and down his body with the same focus they would scan the band with, and he watched as David pushed himself off the sink, took a few confident steps forward, and shoved Matteo against the door and pressed their lips together.

Matteo’s eyes widened and then slid closed as he felt David’s hands clutching tight onto his hips, and he grabbed at David’s arms and just as he started moving his lips David pulled away roughly, and was back against the sink in a second.

“That was a bad idea,” David said, holding onto the edge of the sink, avoiding Matteo’s eyes by looking off to the side, “we’re both drunk, we’re fighting, we can’t do that.”

“We don’t have to fight,” Matteo said, knowing that it probably was a bad idea but stepping forward anyway, until he was close enough to see just how tight David was anchoring himself to the sink, “you can tell me to fuck off and I will. Or,” he said, taking another step closer until his foot was kicking against David’s and he could reach out and grab his wrist, “I can stay.”

David only looked back at him when he felt the tug on his arm, and he looked down at Matteo’s hand before looking him in the eyes. Matteo took a risk and slid his hand down, grabbing David’s, and was shocked when David used that grip to pull him in for another kiss, backing him up until his back was smacking into the door again. He got an arm around David’s neck before he was pulling away, again, and Matteo sighed as David rubbed a hand over his face and said, “Fuck, no, this is such a bad idea.”

“Maybe,” Matteo said, rolling his shoulders as he asked, “can you just make up your mind? This is hurting my back.”

David looked at Matteo again, looked him up and down the same way that he had earlier that night, and something seemed to click. He tilted his head again, his eyes filled with a sudden new brightness as he stepped forward, placing his hands on the door on either side of Matteo’s hips, boxing him in.

“Okay, here’s the plan,” he said, and Matteo raised an eyebrow, amused, before he continued, “whatever happens tonight happens, and then we don’t talk about it, and it never happens again. Deal?”

Matteo thought it over for a minute, more trying to get one last little jab at David by making him wait for an answer, and once he saw David’s face go from confident to bordering on annoyed, he grinned and stuck out his hand, and said, “Deal.”

David ignored his hand but grabbed his ass and pulled him in close, his hands dragging up to Matteo’s waist as their mouths met again, and Matteo slid a hand into David’s hair and let himself melt against the door.

***

Matteo woke up the next morning with a dry mouth and a bad headache, both of which he attributed to the hangover he almost definitely had. He couldn’t even remember drinking that much, but the pain behind his eyes was more than just him being tired like usual. He got himself out of bed, just wanting to drink some water and get into a hot shower to wash away the sweat and alcohol from the party.

He got into the bathroom and turned the shower on, tugging his shirt over his head as he yawned and rubbed at his eyes. He blinked at himself in the mirror, taking in the pale face, the fucked up hair, the red eyes, the bruise on his neck, the-

Matteo jolted forward and slapped his hand over the mark on his neck, before moving it so he could gawk at the dark purple and red. Seeing it brought back a rush of memories from the night before, memories that Matteo couldn’t believe he had forgotten, and he stared at himself with wide eyes and let out a quiet, “Fuck.”

***

Matteo debated whether or not he should skip the next band rehearsal. He knew that realisitcally he couldn’t, and that skipping because of a hickey was so dumb that he shouldn’t have even been considering it. He just didn’t want to face his friends and have them ask questions, and even more than that he didn’t want to see David.

He figured that David wasn’t planning on showing up for their usual private session, so he got to band with just enough time to still be considered early, and he found a quiet corner of the theater to set his baritone up in, a row of seats off to the side. He smiled when he saw Jonas come in, but it fell quickly when he saw Jonas notice the hickey on his neck, and the pure joy and confusion that came over his face.

“Dude!” Jonas exclaimed, staring obviously at the mark, “Who gave you that?”

“Someone from the orchestra, I barely remember his name.” Matteo said as casually as he could, having thought of the lie on his way to band. Jonas nodded with a grin and held out his fist, and Matteo rolled his eyes and bumped his against it, grateful that the idea of him and David hooking up was so unbelievable that it wouldn’t even enter Jonas’ mind.

“And what happened with Schreibner?” Jonas was bouncing on his toes, excited for the news and probably expecting a story.

Matteo snorted and rolled his eyes again, before turning back to his half-assembled baritone, and shrugged and said, “We worked it out.”

Fucked it out is more like it, Matteo thought to himself, and he shook his head to rid it of that kind of thinking.

Matteo got settled in his seat, listening to the cacophony around him, and then finally let himself glance around the room to see where David was. He was surprised when he didn’t find him, unable to think of any other time where David showed up late (besides that one time with the sheet music), but the doors suddenly burst open and the conductor walked in, David hot on his heels as always, whispering as they finished up what looked to be an intense conversation.

“Sorry we’re late, we got caught up discussing the sequence of songs for the concert, but I’m glad to see you’re all ready to go.” Rick said as he grabbed his baton, and he waited for David to sit in his usual seat in the clarinet section before counting them into their first song.

Matteo spent the entire rehearsal trying his hardest to not stare at David while doing exactly that, but he was lucky that David never returned his gaze. He seemed to be actively avoiding looking in Matteo’s direction, which made sense considering the deal they had made, but he was still a little let down that David didn’t even look at him. He even found himself disappointed when David didn’t end up conducting that day, and got up and went over to his case once they were dismissed.

He was glaring at his bottle of valve oil, realizing that he was low and was going to need to go get more, when a shadow fell over him. He looked up with a smile, assuming it would be Jonas, but it dropped when he saw David standing there. He had his jacket on, his clarinet case clutched tightly in his hand, and his backpack on his back, and he was staring down at Matteo with something between apathy and irritation on his face.

“Where were you earlier?”

Matteo raised an eyebrow. He tossed the valve oil back in his case before snapping it shut, and stood up and gathered all of his things before turning to face David again and shrugging, letting his eyes drift to the side as he said, “I figured I’d give things a day to chill after...you know.”

“After what?” David asked, with a tilt of his head, and more pointed, forced confusion on his face than Matteo had ever seen. Oh, so that was how it was gonna be.

Matteo smiled back tightly. “You know what, never mind. I’ll be there next time.”

There was a moment where David’s eyes darted down to Matteo’s neck and back up just as quick. His cheeks got a little pink. Matteo smirked.

“Good.” David said simply, and then turned and left. Matteo stared after him, and smirked when he saw David turn again to look at him one more time before almost jogging out of the theater.

Matteo heard a snort from behind him, and he whipped his head around to see Jonas standing there.

“Fuckin’ dick,” he said, tilting his head in the direction of the door, “what was he yelling about this time?”

“Nothing important.” Matteo said, shrugging again, readjusting his grip on his baritone case as they started walking towards the door.

“Is it ever with him?” Jonas joked, elbowing Matteo in the arm, and they both laughed as they left the theater, Jonas waving a goodbye to the people who called out to him. Nobody said anything to Matteo, and he sighed as they made their way down the hall.

“Who knows, man,” Jonas started after a second, pausing and then turning to Matteo with a grin, jabbing him again, “maybe Schreibner is just secretly gay and super jealous of whoever gave you that hickey.”

Matteo snorted, before laughing out loud as they got outside. He shook his head and chuckled when Jonas shot him a confused look.

“I don’t think that’s it.”

*****

The next day that Matteo was meant to meet David, he woke up, and the anxious and dark feeling that settled over him immediately made him want to turn over and go back to sleep. It didn’t have anything to do with David, Matteo knew that, had a diagnosis that proved that, but he couldn’t help the dread that filled him at the thought of sitting in a practice room getting scolded over and over again by the same guy who had given him a hickey the week before.

He lit a joint as he left his place. There were tons of off-campus apartments around his school, and he had managed to get a place with Jonas. It was small, but they had all the rooms they needed, and a balcony attached to Matteo’s room for him to smoke on. It was perfect.

Smoking that day was a bad choice, though. He had gone to band high before, and knew that his fingers would be slower and he wouldn’t be able to focus, but it wouldn’t be any different with the fog filling his head. The only difference was that at least he would be out of it enough to not be bothered by the criticizing.

But by the time he got there, he had almost forgotten that before he had band, he had to see David. He knew it would be obvious he was high, and was preparing himself for whatever David would have to say about it. He was also a little late because he needed to take a minute outside of the building to breath and calm himself down. The weed had done the job of dulling everything coming in, but the anxiety twisting up inside of his gut was still pretty active. He took another shaky breath before pushing into the practice room.

“You’re late.” David said sternly, turning in the seat to glare at Matteo as he shuffled in. Matteo barely acknowledged that he had spoken besides a half shrug until he was settled in his chair, with his baritone set up.

“Bad morning,” he said in a quiet voice, before putting his music on the stand and saying, “let’s just start.”

David went easy on him at first, starting off with one of their simpler songs just to make sure Matteo understood one set of measures that the entire band had been messing up. It didn’t require much complex counting or a lot of movement, so Matteo was playing fine. It was a little further into the session when David switched to a different song, one that Matteo could play most days, but not with his fuzzy brain and fingers that started to shake when David pointed at the measure he wanted Matteo to start with,

He barely got through the first measure before David was cutting him off and telling him to start over, and then stopping him again to count out the beats, and then finally stopping him again when Matteo was playing at a tempo so wrong that he didn’t even know what he was doing.

“Okay, stop, stop,” David said, and he flopped back in his chair with a huff, “what the fuck is going on today?”

“Nothing,” Matteo muttered, leaning back in his chair as well, but crossing his arms over his chest, “I told you, bad morning.”

David turned to stare at him, actually looking at him for the first time he had come in, and Matteo saw understanding dawn on his face before a glare took its place.

“Oh, I get it,” David said, shifting back in his chair, “you’re really trying to get kicked out, aren’t you?”

“No, what the fuck?” Matteo said, shaking his head at the idea.

“So you thought coming in stoned was a good way to keep your spot?”

Matteo froze, before asking quietly, “Are you going to narc?”

David rolled his eyes and snorted, and opened his mouth, before closing it again and leaning back more in his chair. He squinted at Matteo for a second, and then asked, “Why did you do it?”

“What?” Matteo asked, running a hand through his hair, his eyes darting to the side because he hadn’t even thought about what could happen if David told anyone that he had showed up high.

“Get high, before coming here? If you aren’t trying to get kicked out? Did you think it was a good idea?” David seemed almost amused by the conversation.

“None of your fucking business.”

“I kind of think it is, though, if you’re going to be showing up here, at a time that I only agreed to meet at because you need help-”

“Shut the fuck up, you have to be here just as much as I do, in case you forgot,” Matteo snapped, feeling himself losing a bit of the control that he was usually very careful to hold onto, “and if you really need to know, my brain is pretty fucked up and coming here and getting yelled at by you doesn’t help. Shockingly, it makes it worse. So if you’re going to run off and tell the department that I’m high, make sure they know it’s because you’re so unbearable to work with that it’s the only way I can get through it.”

David stared at him, and swallowed, his face unreadable. Matteo took a deep breath and looked down at the ground, his pulse pounding in his ears. He pressed his fingers down on the valves of his baritone as he tried to get his breathing back under control after losing his temper, and with the new panic that was filling him. He was done for. There was no way David would let him get away with all of that, and Matteo knew that the department would not be happy to hear that he showed up to a rehearsal high before screaming at everyone’s favorite.

“Okay,” David said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

Matteo’s head whipped to him. “What?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m pissed that you’re high right now,” David said, but his voice was still soft, and he was looking at Matteo with the closest thing to sympathy on his face that Matteo had seen from him, “but brains can suck. And I get that I can be...blunt.”

Matteo snorted. “Blunt, sure.”

“So here’s what we’re gonna do,” David said, and he took his phone out of his pocket and started typing, “have you ever listened to the songs that we’re playing?”

“Well, he played new pieces for us in the beginning of the semester. And I hear them when we play.” Matteo said with a shrug. He had never really been the type to listen to band music. He loved it, and loved playing it, but it already took up so much of his time. When he was listening to music on his own he usually chose stuff that he couldn’t tell you the time signature of.

“Yeah, but sitting in a section of a band and listening to the people around you is really different from hearing it like the audience does,” David said, barely looking up, “we still have some time before rehearsal, so let’s just listen to the songs until it’s time to go. I’ll point out some parts that you’re struggling with so you can hear how you fit into everything else.”

“Oh. Okay. That sounds good.” Matteo said, staring at David in shock as he kept tapping on his phone. After a few seconds, Matteo could hear the run that starts the first song in their program. David raised the volume and set his phone on the stand, and then leaned back in his chair, the corners of his lips turning up as the clarinet came in, playing the solo that David played every class.

“That person played it better,” Matteo said under his breath, a little uncomfortable with how suddenly accommodating David was being. He was sure light teasing was still safe. He smirked at the eyebrow David raised.

They listened to the next couple of songs, David pausing every now and then to point things out or tell Matteo to listen to the part coming up next. Matteo could see his hands twitching on his lap, tapping along to the beat, and sometimes, seemingly without even noticing, his hand would come up and with just a finger he would conduct to the room. Matteo watched until it seemed like David wasn’t paying attention to him anymore, and he leaned back in his own chair, and closed his eyes.

He was still listening, and he continued tapping his foot to the beat of every song that played. As the last note of the last piece played out in the room, Matteo let out the breath he had taken in and held during the final crescendo. He didn’t realize until then that he hadn’t even put away his baritone, the horn just resting in his lap, his hands moving across the brass and pressing down on the valves of their own accord.

“We should probably head out,” Matteo heard, and he opened his eyes slowly, not expecting to meet David’s as quickly as he did. David was staring at him with another unreadable expression, biting his lips as his eyes darted around Matteo’s face, down to his lips, before he bit his own and jumped up from his chair with a, “yeah, we need to be there in ten. Let’s pack up.”

*****

[insert blah blah whatever but then the conductor is like haha later this week im gonna be gone and david is gonna conduct all of you the whole time and matteo is like “lol k” but it actually ends up being fine?? And matteo plays better and david doesnt have to say anything to him and near the end he actually SMILES at him and matteo is like okay oaky….this is kinda nice i like not fighting with this dude also hes STILL SO FUCKING CUTE]

[flash forward to a couple weeks later they're still kinda getting along like they are still constantly teasing and bantering and arguing but its like,, nice and funny and ,maybe flirty??????]

“Why can’t we talk about it?” Matteo asked, finally, snapping his case shut and turning to stare at David’s suddenly stiff back. He heard David’s case zip up after a second, before he turned around, a tight smile on his face.

“Talk about what?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest in a way that made it obvious he wasn’t pleased.

“Stop acting like it’s fucking crazy that two people who don’t like each other got drunk at a party and hooked up,” Matteo said, rolling his eyes at David’s carefully controlled expression, “just because you’re so busy and important doesn’t mean you have to be boring.”

“I’m not boring,” David hissed, but he flopped back down in his seat and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling before saying, “I don’t want other people in the band finding out. I have a reputation with them, and I know that...I know this would make things weird.”

“If anything they’ll be jealous of me,” Matteo said with a laugh, “as if you don’t know how many of them eye fuck you while you’re conducting.”

“I’m not...oblivious,” David huffed, and Matteo smirked when he saw his cheeks get red as he looked down at the ground, “and that’s not it.”

Matteo tilted his head, trying to figure out what David meant as he looked up from the ground but off to the side, chewing on his lip. Somewhere in the back of his head a thought started brewing, and once he thought it it was impossible not to clear his throat, and take a breath before asking, “Is it because you think I’m bad? Like, a bad player? Do you not want them knowing you hooked up with me?”

“What? Matteo, no,” David looked at him sincerely for the first time since Matteo had started the conversation, and he reached a hand out, and Matteo jumped when it wrapped gently around his wrist, “I don’t think you’re a bad player, and that...that isn’t the problem. You aren’t the problem with this.”

“Then what is?” Matteo asked, exasperated even though he was the one to ask.

“It’s them,” David said, gesturing vaguely out but Matteo could guess he meant their bandmates, “I love them, but do you know how hard it would be to lead a group of people, including lots of people who have hit on me, if they knew I hooked up with the one member of the band that I-”

“That you what?” Matteo asked too quick, excited to hear the answer.

“That they have seen me get angry in the past- perhaps angrier than necessary.” David said calculating and slow, like admitting it hurt him somewhere deep. Matteo kind of hoped it did. After smiling to himself at that he refocused on the point of the conversation.

“Do you really think I’m planning on telling any of them?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief, “The only other people I talk to besides you are Carlos, Abdi, and Jonas, and I’m not telling them about any of it because I don’t want them giving me shit for any of it.”

“Why do you even want to talk about this?” David asked, looking up and fixing Matteo with a hard stare, “It happened a while ago, and it’s not like we had some romantic fucking moment of reconiliation. We got drunk, we argued, we hooked up, and now we can move on.”

“Well,” Matteo said, licking his lips and shrugging before looking up at David again, knowing that he didn’t really have a reason besides, “I had fun.”

David opened his mouth, and then closed it again, and then opened it again and just went, “Okay?”

“Didn’t you?” Matteo asked, trying for confidence, but coming off as a little desperate with the way he twisted in his seat to make sure he would catch David’s answer.

“I mean…” David started, his cheeks getting darker as his eyes darted around the room, then down to Matteo’s lips and up to his eyes again as he said, “yeah. I did.”

“Yeah, so,” Matteo said, shrugging again, “what’s the big deal if we acknowledge it? It happened, and now we-” he cut himself off, before taking a deep breath and continuing, “and now we see what happens next.”

David’s eyes popped open. Matteo shrugged again before standing and picking his case up, and his bag, and taking a couple of steps to the door. He turned when he heard silence behind him, and saw David frozen in his seat, still staring at him. He stared back for a moment before gesturing out the door and asking, “Are you coming?”

David blinked and nodded, before getting up and gathering his things as well, and he followed Matteo out the door, and they made the short trek to rehearsal.

Matteo felt different sitting down next to his bandmates that day. He was still full of adrenaline, but felt ready to play, quietly humming one of their songs to himself as his fingers pressed down on the associated valves. He couldn’t stop his gaze from flicking to David every few minutes, and he caught David looking back just as Rick walked onto the stage. David coughed and looked away, and Matteo smiled to himself before leaning back in his seat.

He could feel David’s eyes on him throughout the rehearsal, and he was surprised, but it encouraged him to keep sneaking peeks as well. His eyes would wander up from the page even when he was playing just to catch a glimpse of David in his seat, sitting up straight, his strong arms and shoulders holding the clarinet up, his lips wrapped around the mouthpiece-

Matteo was glad he had a lot of rests.

“David! You were supposed to come in there!” Rick yelled suddenly, smacking the score in front of him with his baton, “You’ve never missed that cue before, what’s got you so distracted today?”

The band was silent and they watched David blush as he said, “Sorry, Rick, I’ll focus better. Won’t happen again.”

The conductor just shook his head before telling them to start the piece over, which was followed by angry grumbles and the sound of papers flipping. David looked down at the ground, his cheeks an angry red, and Matteo bit back the smile that threatened to grow on his face.

[david cancels their next private lesson and matteo is like what why and then he gets to band that day and david is conducting again and he basically ignore matteo the entire time and matteo is a lil mad and then after matteo goes up to him and is like “hey wtf why did you cancel on me and then not even correct me when i messed up” and david is like “fuck cause youre super fucknig distracting now and i cant spend an hour alone with you and then get up in front of a group of people and conduct like an idiot cause im too busy thinking about YOU” but hes likes embarassed and actually mad about it and matteo is like oh my god are we going back to the anger i thought we were passed that and davids like well i guess not and matteos like lmao do we need to hook up again cause that seemed like it worked pretty well last time and david is like,, so fucking pissed but is more pissed that hes kind of into that idea so he locks the practice room door and basically they hook up in the practice room because wow what a fantasy that is]

[things are like….weird but chill for a while after that. It seemed like being able to hook up with matteo again made david less distracted by him in a destructive way and even put a bit of a pep in his step?? And matteo notices that hes being a bit nicer to everyone, not just him, and hes actually smiling and complimenting matteo during their private sessions, and even though nothing is explicitly referenced they both know something's going on. Neither of them would call the other a friend though]

[this is after they hook up the third time, which is the first time that isnt completely out of anger but they arent really friends They just happened to run into each other after a concert and were both being a bit flirty and matteo was very boldly like “hey uh come back to my place” because he thinks and david actually does]

“Tell me something about you,” Matteo said, turning his head and propping it up on his arms so he could see David. The light was low in the room, and the plant near his lamp was casting strange shadows on the walls, and on David himself, leaned back against the wall like he was.

“Uh,” David started, his eyes dancing around the room as he tried to think of something, “I started playing the clarinet when I was-”

Matteo reached out and pinched his leg. David twitched, and raised an eyebrow at him. Matteo hoped that David was okay with the fact that he just kept touching him. It was hard to keep his hands away, and he didn’t know David’s comfort level with non-sexual physical contact. So far he seemed more amused than anything else.

“Tell me something not related to music.” Matteo said, and David snorted at the request.

“Why?” He asked, reaching down to push Matteo’s hair out of his eyes. He bit his lip, wishing that David kept his hand on him longer.

“I just think, you know,” Matteo said, hoping he wasn’t pushing it by sliding his hand onto David’s thigh, the same one he had pinched, “might not be the time to to get into that topic. Just in case.”

I don’t want to start arguing when we just had really great sex and we’re like five minutes away from cuddling if I play my cards right, is what Matteo was thinking, but he figured he got the point across.

David hummed, and nodded, the amused smile still on his face, and tilted his head against the wall and said, “Okay, let me think.”

Matteo stared at him, from where the blanket was draped over his lap, up his bare chest, up the angle of his neck, and still found himself blown away at how beautiful he was. He sighed, glad that David wasn’t watching him swoon.

“Okay I got something,” David said suddenly, turning to Matteo, his eyes bright, “so, growing up we had a cat. My sister got to name it because she was older, and she named the cat Martha Jones, after a Doctor Who character. That cat fucking hated me.”

Matteo laughed, but David didn’t look like he was done, so he prompted him with, “And?”

“Years later, I moved in with my sister, and she wants us to get another cat. So, we go to a shelter, and there’s a cage in the back with a sign on it that says ‘Martha Jones’. Completely different cat, but of course my sister says we have to see her.”

Matteo nodded, enthralled.

“So she goes to ask a worker, and this dude says that that cat was a biter, would hiss, and scratched anyone that went near her unless they had food. Laura insisted, because she’s stubborn, so they brought us into a room and the dude basically tossed the cat in with us and closed the door.”

“That doesn’t sound safe.” Matteo said, shifting closer until he was able to rest his head in David’s lap. He couldn't hold back the need any longer, and he was pleased when David started playing with his hair.

“It wasn’t, she immediately scratched me so bad I started bleeding,” David said with a chuckle, “but she chilled out after a bit, my sister was very persistent. After like 20 minutes she was purring in my lap.” David finished with a proud smile down at Matteo.

If Matteo hadn’t already been crushing that would’ve sealed the deal. It did make something soft settle in his chest, and made his hands a little tingly, and he didn’t think twice before asking, “Can I see a picture?”

David looked thrilled at the question, and he leaned over to grab his phone. Matteo watched, biting back a grin as David scrolled through his pictures before settling on one and handing his phone over, obviously excited for Matteo to see.

The first thing Matteo could make out was a metal music stand, the same basic kind he had in his room for practicing, but it was tilted so the tray was lying flat. He grinned at the cat bed that was resting on top of it, and actually awwwed out loud at the pretty calico, splayed out on her back in a sunbeam. The stand was in front of a large window, and Matteo could see plants around it, and he wondered if it was David’s room.

“Yeah,” David said, looking at the picture again himself before putting his phone down. Matteo felt a tug on his hair, and he looked up to see David staring down at him, and he said, “now you.”

“Me? I don’t have any cats to show off,” Matteo said, wrapping his arms around David’s legs so he could squeeze himself closer.

“No, now you have to tell me something about yourself,” David said, rolling his eyes, but his face was softer than Matteo had ever seen it.

“Oh, shit,” Matteo said, not thinking that David was going to turn the conversation on him, and he hummed for a second before saying the first thing he could think of, “well, I like to sing. When I was younger I used to have a vocal coach and everything, now I mostly just sing whenever my roommate isn’t home.”

It wasn’t something he brought up, or really thought about too often, because ultimately the decision for him to stop the training was out of his hands, and he regretted not being able to go farther with it the same way he could with the baritone.

“Why’d you stop?” David asked, his voice soft, as if he could sense the sadness underlying the statement.

“Well,” Matteo said, shifting back a little bit so he could roll onto his back and say it up to the ceiling, “my mom was the one who got me the lessons, I had already been taking them for the baritone for a year or so. My dad got pissed, because I was already singing in the church choir at that point, and he didn’t want singing to distract from my other music shit. When I got older, uh,” he paused to take a breath, “there was a while where my mom wasn’t living with us, so all the singing lessons stopped. I stopped singing at church, too, and, well. I was better at the baritone anyway.”

He hadn’t noticed that while he had been talking, David had slid down more on the bed until he was resting on his side, and he was staring with a concerned look when Matteo turned to him again,

“They have vocal coaches through the school,” David said, an arm inching across the mattress towards Matteo, “you can sign up for one, if you want. I can get you the email of the person who sets them up, I-”

Matteo laughed at David’s eagerness to help, cutting him off, and rolled back over onto his side, surprised at how close he found himself to David. He felt a hand gently sliding onto his hip, and he bit his lip, his eyes meeting David’s, and he leaned in to kiss him.

David didn’t seem to have expected it. He made a sound, and Matteo worried for a moment that he was going to pull away but instead he was pulled in closer, David’s hand sliding onto the small of his back. He pulled away, and David rolled onto his back, his cheeks pink.

“Thanks, but I don’t need any of that,” Matteo said, and he hesitantly let his head drop onto David’s shoulder, and then let his arm drape across his stomach when David tangled their legs together, “it’s just something I do for fun now.”

“For fun,” David repeated, and then took a breath and asked, “since the topic of music is back on the table, do you want to hear a secret?”

Matteo looked up, amused, and then propped his chin on David’s chest so he could see him better, and he said, “Yes, please.”

“So, I can play almost every wind instrument, right? And brass too, and I can figure out percussion pretty quickly. I can pretty much play anything you’ll find in the average wind ensemble, and then some.”

Matteo rolled his eyes, “That’s not a secret.”

“Yeah, but,” David took another breath, and it seemed like it actually pained him to say, “I can’t play anything with fucking strings.”

“Really?” Matteo asked, leaning up a bit more so he could see the hurt on David’s face, and he grinned, and questioned, “not even guitar? Or ukulele? Even I can play those a bit.”

“Nope,” David sulked, “nothing. One time my friend gave me her violin to try and she said I should be banned from ever touching anything with strings again.”

Matteo covered his mouth with his hands to stop the giggles that were threatening to pour out of him. It wasn’t like there was any actual expectation that David was able to play every single instrument that existed, but the shame he seemed to be feeling about his own inability was hilarious.

“Now you have to tell me something else too,” David said, poking Matteo in the cheek, obviously trying to change the subject,

“You offered that information up freely, I don’t have to tell you shit.” Matteo snarked back. He was still reeling from how strange this new dynamic was, and he wanted to push a bit, see what was allowed.

David scrunched his face up before suddenly grabbing Matteo’s wrist and flipping him onto his back, David hovering over him, looking much too pleased with himself. Once he could tell Matteo wasn’t going to try to move he slid his hand off his wrist and down his chest, onto his hip, and blinked his dark eyes slow and said, “Tell me something.”

“I can speak Italian,” Matteo blurted out immediately, unable to resist a hot, mostly naked boy pinning him to his bed.

“Oh yeah?” David asked with a grin, “Fluently?”

“Yeah,” Matteo said, his eyes wide as he stared up at David, “my dad’s from Italy, we spoke it when I was growing up.”

David hummed, still looking down at Matteo with the same cocky smile on his face, and said, “Say something.”

“No,” Matteo refused, and with a sudden burst of confidence he slid his hand onto the back of David’s head and said, “kiss me.”

David’s eyes widened but he smiled, and did as told. The conversation ended there.

*****

A few days later, a weekend, Matteo walked out onto his balcony. It was midday, and he had already eaten and gotten the work done for his academic classes, so he had an unlit joint dangling between his lips. He stretched, and squinted when the sun shone down on him bright enough to hurt his eyes. He dashed back into his room, intent on finding the sunglasses he knew were somewhere, and he saw something balanced against the wall in the corner that made him pause.

It was a ukulele, his ukulele, one that a random family member had gotten him when he was first accepted to the school. It was a bright blue, and Matteo knew that with most instruments a bright color didn’t ensure the best quality, but he didn’t mind because he barely played the thing. It was good enough for the random time every few months where Matteo would decide to teach himself a new song.

He thought back on his conversation with David. He felt the corners of his lips twitch up, remembering David’s pained face when he revealed his secret, and with a small laugh he grabbed the neck of the ukulele and tucked it under his arm. He found his sunglasses on the floor next to his desk, and slid them onto his face before walking back out the door.

He leaned against the railing of the balcony as he lit the joint, smiling around it, and puffing the smoke out his nose. His room faced out to an empty street, across from a bunch of buildings that he was sure nobody had gone inside for years. He liked how private it felt, for the years he had lived there he had only seen a handful of people out there.

Which made it the perfect place for him to pluck out a few random chords on the ukulele without the judgement he usually faced when playing music. He wasn’t good by any means, but he knew enough chords to play enough songs to keep himself occupied. There were even a few times when he and Jonas had played together out there, usually after a few beers or joints when Matteo was feeling less self conscious about giggling as he badly played along with Jonas actually playing his guitar.

He puffed on the joint, his eyes closing under the sunglasses as he started strumming. His fingers had settled naturally on the frets, playing the chords to the last song he had taught himself, one Jonas had played in his car that got stuck in Matteo’s head. He hummed along, but stopped when the joint almost fell out of his mouth. He took a step back, rolled his shoulders, and started playing again.

The joint did fall out of his mouth, tumbling to the ground at Matteo’s feet, thankfully not setting anything on fire, when he heard from the street below him, “Matteo?”

Oh god, he recognized the voice immediately. He bent down to grab the joint and stubbed it out on the ashtray conveniently right next to him, and took a deep breath before peeking over the railing. And he was right about the voice, as David was standing there, a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun, squinting up at the balcony.

“Uh, yeah,” Matteo called back, lifting a hand to wave awkwardly before realizing that he was still clutching the ukulele, so he set it down, his fingers tight around the neck, “that’s me.”

“Nice shades.” David said, smirking up as he moved his hand from his eyes. The sun was going behind some clouds so the glare was gone, and Matteo lifted the sunglasses from his eyes with a blush.

“What are you doing over here?” Matteo asked, leaning over the edge so he could get a closer look. David had a bike next to him, and a backpack tight on his back, obviously either coming or going from somewhere.

“Oh, well, actually,” David said, digging the toe of his shoe into the ground like he was embarrassed by the question, “I was just taking a shortcut.”

Matteo snorted, and looked down at his arms folded across the railing. He didn’t really know what to say. He wasn’t expecting to see David obviously, and it didn’t seem like David’s answer matched his reaction to the question. He wanted to know what that was about. After an almost awkward silence, just as David’s hand tightened around the handle of his bike, Matteo quickly asked, “Do you want to come up?”

Something about David made Matteo do that a lot, blurt out things that drifted through his head that he wouldn’t usually say without a second more to think about it. He blushed after he asked, looking down at his arms again, not wanting to watch David uncomfortably decline. Sometimes it was hard to remember that they weren’t really supposed to like each other.

“Okay.” David said, confidently, and Matteo’s eyes snapped back down. David was looking up at him with his head tilted, a smile on his face like Matteo’s question was a challenge.

“Oh,” Matteo responded, needing to take a minute to realize that David was actually agreeing, “um, go around the front and I’ll buzz you in?”

David nodded, and hopped on his bike and disappeared around the corner of the building. Matteo let out a breath and rushed into his room, looking around with wide eyes to see what he needed to quickly kick under his bed and shove in his closet. He managed to tidy his room up enough to not be embarrassed by the time the buzzer went off, and Matteo ran to it, not even knowing if Jonas was home but desperately hoping he wasn’t.

He pulled the door open, biting his lip when David came into view, smiling slightly in that cocky way he did. He felt like he would swallow his tongue if he spoke out loud so he waved David into the flat, blushing at the chuckle David let out as he did so, and David bowed his head as he walked in, stepping past Matteo and stopping in the entrance to the main part of the flat.

“We should go chill on your balcony,” David said, looking around like he had never been there before. To be fair, the only time David had been there they were stumbling through the dark to Matteo’s room trying to keep their lips connected, so he didn’t blame him for taking the time to look around in the daylight.

Matteo nodded, and then realizing he hadn’t actually said anything since David came up, cleared his throat and said, “Yeah, sure.”

He led an amused David through his room, pointedly avoiding looking at his bed, his face flushing although he kept his eyes trained forward. David didn’t say anything, or even show in any way that he remembered the fact that just days ago they had been wrapped up in each other in that very same bed, kissing and touching and a lot else. Matteo didn’t know how he was so nonchalant about it when the sight of the bed instantly brought the taste of David’s lips to Matteo’s head, the feeling of his hands on him, Matteo’s hands in his hair. He shook his head and pulled the door to the balcony open harder than he meant to.

He was glad that they had chairs set out on the balcony, ones they had found outside some other building when they first moved in. They didn’t match but they were surprisingly comfortable and most importantly, not broken. Matteo only sat after David had picked a chair, and looked up at him, an amused smile still on his face.

“I should tell you that I lied, earlier.” David said suddenly, after Matteo sat. He looked up, confused, at David’s smile.

“Lied about what?”

“I wasn’t really taking a shortcut.”

Matteo raised an eyebrow, “Oh?”

David nodded, and bent down, digging around in the backpack at his feet. Matteo settled back in his seat to watch until David sprang back up with a book in his hand.

“Don’t tell anyone,” David started, flipping to a page near the end, “but I might sometimes sneak into buildings in a way that isn’t totally...legal.”

Matteo smiled at that, tilting his head, and asked, “For any particular reason, or do you just like the thrill?”

David smiled back, not cocky, and said, “It is pretty thrilling, especially when you get chased out by security guards. But I really do it for this.”

His cheeks got a little rosy when he handed the book over to Matteo, and Matteo’s jaw dropped when he looked down at the page. He was expecting words, but instead there was a sketch done in black pencil, and it took Matteo a minute to piece together what it was.

[idk dude figure out what he drew i guess lmao i dont care enough to try to write this part rn]

“These are… really good,” Matteo said, flipping through the pages. He didn’t really know if David wanted him to but he didn’t try to stop him, so Matteo let his eyes wander over the pages.

“Yeah, well,” David said, sounding a little sheepish, “it’s a hobby, I guess.”

Matteo was quiet as he turned page after page, finding sketches of more abandoned buildings, random people, different plants. A cat popped up a few times, which made Matteo smile, along with the doodles of instruments and staff lines half filled with notes. He didn’t realize how long he had been absorbed in the book until he noticed he was on the second to last page. He stared at the drawing that seemed somewhat familiar, a barely-started portrait, a head with short swooping hair, a button nose, a small smile-

“Okay, um,” David said quickly, his hand darting out to grab at the book, “yeah, a lot of those last ones aren’t finished. Not really that interesting.”

“I thought they were,” Matteo muttered, a little annoyed at being interrupted. He had been enjoying himself.

“I, uh,” David started as he shoved the book back into his bag, “don’t usually show that to people.”

Matteo tilted his head. He had never seen David look less sure of himself. He leaned back in the chair, biting his lip, his eyes avoiding Matteo’s. He seemed almost… shy? Timid? Words that Matteo would never associate with David.

“Well, you should,” Matteo said after a moment of silence, “it sucks that you’re amazing at that too.”

That got a bit of a chuckle, and Matteo grinned at David until their eyes met. There was a beat, and then David looked away again.

“I don’t know,” David said, his cheeks getting pink again, “that’s something I really only do when I need to escape. I just… go somewhere, and draw whatever I can find. I don’t really show people because I’m not doing it for anyone else. Like… you know.”

Matteo had a million questions about what he meant by that, but David had crossed his arms over his chest and looked off to the side after saying it, his jaw set. He let out a long exhale through his nose, and Matteo got the hint that he didn’t want to further dissect that statement.

Matteo leaned back in his chair, quiet, trying to figure out how to turn the conversation back around. He could tell David maybe hadn’t meant to say as much as he did, maybe was a little embarrassed at revealing something so personal. Showing off a picture of his cat a week or so prior was nothing compared to talking about something that he was actively keeping to himself. His escape, from what Matteo knew was a very stressful and hectic life.

He thought for a moment, his eyes darting around the balcony to find something to change the topic, to stop David from looking so uncomfortable. His eyes landed on his ukulele. He paused there, the thought alone making his heart race and something nervous twist up in his stomach, but before he could stop himself he reached out and grabbed it, letting it settle in his arms the way it always did. David didn’t look over until Matteo accidentally twanged one of the strings.

“Um,” he said, when David’s eyes widened and a grin started growing over his face, “I’ll trade you.”

The grin stopped, David tilted his head in confusion and asked, “You’ll trade me what?”

“You told me about what you do that’s just for you, that you don’t usually share with other people,” Matteo strummed, quickly adjusting a couple of the tuning pegs until the sound was just right, “only fair that I do the same.”

“I didn’t think that playing the ukulele was that important to you.” David said, uncrossing his arms, relaxing back into his chair a bit. The tension was gone from his face, and his lips were curved up at the sides.

“It’s not,” Matteo said with a smirk that looked more confident than he felt, and he took a deep breath before putting his fingers on the frets.

He started strumming the song he had been playing when David showed up, looking down at his hands because he knew he would need to focus on the chords and not on David looking at him. He took another deep breath, tried not to think about it, and started singing.

“There once was a bittersweet man and they called him Lemon Boy….”

Matteo hadn’t considered the lyrics before singing them, just picking a song that was fresh in his head so he wouldn’t embarrass himself by messing up, not that David would have been shocked by that. It was a simple song, pretty, one that he didn’t have to think too hard about. But as he sang it, as the lyrics came out of his mouth less timid with every word, he felt butterflies in his stomach. He got to the chorus, and closed his eyes.

“Lemon Boy and me started to get along, together,” he sang, ignoring the heat he could feel spreading across his cheeks, “I helped him plant his seeds and we'd mow the lawn in bad weather.”

Matteo stumbled on a chord, managed to fix it in a second but he knew David heard it. He continued, though. David had reminded him of that often, not to stop when he made a mistake.

“It’s actually pretty easy being nice to a bitter boy like him...”

He sang the next verse, getting a little sloppy with the chords as he failed to not think about the words he was singing. He got through it, got halfway through the next chorus, and was suddenly cut off when loud classical music started playing from David’s bag. His hands stilled, and he opened his eyes.

It was as if David hadn’t even noticed he stopped, or the sound coming from somewhere near his feet. His eyes were wide, shiny and dark, staring into Matteo’s, leaning forward in his chair like he didn’t want to miss a single word, a single strum of Matteo’s fingers over the strings. His head was tilted, lips parted just enough that a long shaky breath could escape, his hands gripping tight to the arms of the chair. He looked awed by Matteo’s mediocre performance.

David’s gaze snapped down to his bag when the classical music started again, and he whispered an, “Oh, shit,” as he dug through it. He pulled his phone out and Matteo expected him to put it to his ear, assuming the music was a ringtone, but instead he could see it was an alarm that David turned off with a slide of his finger across the screen.

“I was supposed to be home a while ago, I need to, uh,” David cut himself off as he stood, shoving his phone into his pocket and zipping his bag closed before swinging it onto his back, “I have to do my shot today.”

“Oh,” Matteo responded, not understanding what David meant. He wasn’t able to say anything else, like singing had taken the rest of his voice for the day.

“You know, testosterone?” David stuttered out, nervous, as if Matteo didn’t already know he was trans.

“Oh,” Matteo said again, almost smacking himself in the face when he blurted out, “have fun?”

That made David pause, his franticness to leave slowing as a smile grew over his face. He bit his lip, and then to Matteo’s shock, let out a laugh.

“I’ll try my best,” he said, winking. That action alone was enough to have Matteo collapsing back into his chair. David turned towards the door, put one foot back into the apartment, and then stopped before saying, “oh, and Matteo?”

“Yes?” Matteo said, leaning forward again, greedy to hear whatever David was about to say.

“One day I’ll show people my art. Have an exhibit at a museum, maybe.” he said, turning his head so he could look back at Matteo with a soft smile on his face, “but only if I can hire you to sing there.”

Matteo’s jaw dropped, his face turning bright red as David walked through the door. He flopped back in his chair, waited until he could hear the clicks of his door opening and then closing, and let out the breath he had been holding for who knows how long.

#oi this was a big one #i spent so much time on it and i hope yall like it even though its not finished #davenzi

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readyplayerhobi · 4 years

Text

Always Trust In Pixie Dust

; Pixie!Seokjin x Pixie!Reader

; Genre: Fluff, a tiny bit of angst

; Word Count: 14k

; Synopsis: As a vegetable pixie, you weren’t exactly considered the most desirable in the pixie hierarchy. But the uncle of one of your student’s is convinced that you have a secret admirer, only made worse when your younger brother and sister get involved. Will they succeed in their matchmaking or will your admirer come forward before they can get into too much mischief?

; A/N: Okay so...this is my first FULL Jin fic and I feel bad because I basically lost all inspiration for any writing about 4/5 through writing this. As a result...it’s pretty fair to say I’m a little uncertain of how this fic is and how you’ll all feel about it, particularly as there’s no smut anymore (it just didn’t fit). I love the world though, and I love pixie!Jin. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, PLEASE reblog because Jin fics don’t get the love they deserve, nor do solely fluff fics :( also, please leave me your comments and thoughts and asks so I know what you thought. I’m trying my hardest to get back into writing and just finishing this was hugely important for me!

“Kim Taehyung...you don’t have a child,” Your words cause the tall pixie with soft, peach coloured hair to pause with almost comically wide eyes turned to you. “So what are you doing here?”

He says nothing for a moment before straightening himself, crossing his arms over his broad chest and pursing his lips at you. Even though he’s younger than you, he towers over you and you work hard to keep your teacher aura that had him looking so chastised when caught.

“You’re right. I don’t have a child. But I do have a niece. Right there,” Taehyung points over to the little girl sitting on the floor, her voice sweetly joining the other girls she’s sat with as they sing a nursery rhyme together. “And I’ve been asked to bring her home by her dad.”

Twisting your lips, you sigh before nodding and gesturing for him to come inside. The nursery that you worked at was inside a hollowed-out tree, providing plenty of space for the babies and little ones who were not old enough to attend school lessons in the higher levels of the tree. Everything inside your room was bright and colourful though, the walls stained with the vibrant colours that came from the richest pigments created from flowers.

A mural of the forest and individual, faceless pixies took up one half of the circular room while the other was free for the children to paint on as they saw fit. Creativity was one of the most important traits of a pixie after all, and it was your job to ensure that they went wild with all their beautiful, creative thoughts.

The floor was dotted with dried paint, and even new paint splashes from the day's activities and you hummed lightly as you moved over to the line of reed twine that was strung up across the room, parchment hung on it in intervals with each one containing a drawing. Scanning over, you take the one with the little girl's name and hand it over to Taehyung.

“Miyeon painted this for her dad. Make sure that he gets it please.” You request, smiling at him. He looks over the painting with a critical eye before grinning, nodding before bounding over to Miyeon and crouching down next to her.

“Hey, sweetie. Did you paint this for your daddy? He’s going to love it. Look at your house! It’s so pretty. You’re so talented.” He cooed to her and you watched as her face lit up with happiness at the approval and support from her uncle. Kim Miyeon was the four-year-old daughter of Kim Namjoon, Taehyung’s older brother.

Unfortunately, her mother had died of illness two years ago and so she was being brought up by Namjoon alone. Everyone had worried about that at first given Namjoon’s eccentric nature. He was the inventor of the hamlet, the one who put all that intelligence and creativity to use to create new and useful things for other pixies to use.

But it often meant he could be forgetful and scatterbrained. Occasionally forgetting to eat things or working too long. The idea of him raising a two-year-old on his own had been nerve-wracking, but Namjoon had once more impressed everyone by being a doting father to his daughter.

He may forget to feed himself, but his daughter never went without. And she was proving to be just as creative and intelligent as her daddy. You weren’t sure the hamlet was ready for two people like Kim Namjoon.

“Uncle Tae!” She said, her voice its usual sweet mixed with a little shyness. But you couldn’t deny her love for her uncle, nor his love for her. Opening his arms, she jumps into them and giggles as he stands, pretending she’s heavy by making overly loud grunts and noises.

“Oh, oh you’re getting so big. What is your daddy feeding you?” He teases her, laughing as she starts to give him a serious answer. Looking over at you, he gives you a boxy smile before heading to the door.

“You know...I know a little secret,” Raising a brow at him, you make a gesture for him to continue and he whispers into Miyeon’s ear, a conspiratorial look on his face as he watches you the whole time. “Did you know that Miss Park has a secret admirer?”

She gasps loudly, putting two small hands over her mouth while her pretty eyes go wide. You resist the urge to roll your eyes and instead move a piece of Miyeon’s strawberry blonde hair out of the way of her eyes, untangling it as you do so.

“That’s not a secret Taehyung. You tell me that every time you see me.” Snorting, he rolls his eyes in turn before heading out of the door that you open for him. It’s warm outside, with the sun shining down through the forest canopy and a gentle, cool breeze causing the leaves and grass to rustle.

Taehyung’s wings, long and gossamer-thin like a dragonfly’s flicker as he moves into open space and you take in the hint of peach in the almost transparent wings. As with all pixies, his wing colour matches his hair and pixie dust.

“Yeah, but I’m gonna give you a hint this time. You know him.” Now you can’t help but laugh, leaning against the ancient tree trunk that was so familiar to you. Like all pixies in Appleseed Grove, you had also spent your early years in the rooms carved out of the old oak. It was almost tradition now, and everyone took care to make sure that the oak survived despite how it was being used as an education base.

“I know everyone in Appleseed Taehyung. So try again.” The younger pixie hums thoughtfully before winking at you.

“Okay, you may know everyone here. But your secret admirer is someone that you see every other day.” And with that, he spreads his wings and takes off, the soft fluttering of his delicate wings resulting in a glittering blur of peach as he flies off to Namjoon’s home with Miyeon safely secured in his arms.

Frowning, you watch him go before heading back inside to wait for the other parents to arrive. None of the children has noticed you leave and you lean against the wooden desk you use thoughtfully. None of the little ones had wings and you were beyond thankful for that. It was a pain trying to round them up as they moved on their little feet and legs so as a nursery teacher, you were beyond thankful that they wouldn’t get their wings until they were seven.

But you find yourself turning Taehyung’s words over in your head. He liked to tease you incessantly. It was in his base nature as the youngest son of his family and you were convinced the only responsibility he would ever accept was for the stables where he helped to train the birds that your hamlet was so famous for.

Pixies would travel from far and wide for an Appleseed bird. From the tawny owls that were perfect for anyone who needed to travel at night to the swallows that were used for general travelling needs and even the kestrel’s that were trained to help protect pixies and their land, Taehyung was surprisingly good at training them all.

No one was safe from his mischief outside of his work though and you sighed, wondering why you were letting him get to you. Still, though, he’d never given you a hint as obvious as this. Despite knowing everyone in Appleseed, you didn’t interact with everyone frequently. So that reduced the pool of suspects for your ‘secret admirer’.

If you ever had one.

Blowing out air loudly, you resolve to push his words out of his head for now. You’ve got more important things to worry about. Like little Jaebum who has started a paint fight with his fellow partner in crime Jiyong.

The incessant knocking on your door immediately gives you a clue as to who it is. There’s only one person who has that much pure energy and that’s your little sister, Park Jiwon. As soon as your door is opened, you’re immediately waylaid by both your younger siblings as they push past you into your home.

Groaning quietly, you rub at your face before closing the door and turning around. As a vegetable pixie, you had the luxury of living inside a baby carrot. As the name suggests, it’s pretty small and everything you owned was in this one room. A small kitchen was to the left while your bedroom to your right and a small living area further away.

Pixie social hierarchy is dictated by living status. Fruit pixies, like Taehyung, were the top as it required a lot of innate magic to keep their home sustained. Nut pixies, like your brother and sister, were on the second rank while vegetable pixies were below that. In an ideal world, it would just mean you all had different homes, with each home being directly influenced by your magic.

Your magic had manifested itself in a baby carrot, which was admittedly cute looking, Jimin’s in a chestnut and Jiwon’s in an almond nut. But pixie’s were notoriously finicky, which meant that they liked to marry into each other's social ranking. Fruit pixies to fruit and so forth. Which meant you were destined for another vegetable pixie.

You should be thankful, you guess. Only a few generations ago, your family had been rock pixies. Which meant they had no innate magic. So with your younger siblings being the first to ever manifest their homes in the nut ranking, you had hope that the future was bright for your nieces and nephews.

Didn’t help the small hint of sourness in yourself at the knowledge you’d been skipped over though. What you wouldn’t give for a better home, a nicer home. It was silly though, and you shook your head to escape the thoughts. It didn’t matter in reality, you had a good job, great friends and a loving family.

“What do you two want?” You sigh at the twins, their matching pale blonde hair the only thing you can see from where they sit on your sofa. Nut pixies were renowned for having the most similar colour palettes for their hair and wings. From the palest blonde to the darkest brown, your younger siblings had ended up on the paler end.

“Can’t we just visit our big sister?” Jimin says, a sweet smile on his face and you narrow your eyes at him. His cheeks were round and full, something he was never going to get rid of even though he was the same age as Taehyung. Same age and with the same mischievous mentality.

Unsurprisingly, they had been firm best friends since they’d met in nursery school. Which meant that Taehyung’s earlier mysterious comments had almost certainly been told to Jimin, who would have in turn told Jiwon. Because anything you told one twin would end up being told to the other as they were incapable of keeping secrets from each other.

“No. Well, yes and you do. Frequently. But I’m guessing it’s something to do with Taehyung deciding to be his usual self?” Jiwon giggles and it immediately sets off Jimin, the sounds almost the same except one had a feminine tone and the other masculine. Sighing deeply, you moved over to the kitchen and carried on making your dinner before looking at them both.

“Are you staying for dinner? It’s an apple walnut salad.” They both need eagerly and you snort in amusement. Despite the years between you all, and the fact that they had a much closer bond, you still loved them dearly and enjoyed their presence.

“So have you figured it out yet? Tae gave you such a good clue!” Jimin asks, reaching forward for your newest book that you’d taken from Appleseed’s sole library. It was run by Taehyung’s oldest brother, Kim Seokjin, who was a sweet guy if a little shy.

“What? That it’s someone in Appleseed who I see regularly? Narrows it down a little but not much munchkin.” A deep and overly exaggerated sigh leaves him and you resist the urge to poke your tongue out, not wanting to lower yourself to his level.

But he can tell what you’re feeling by the way your wings twitch. Jiwon pushes him, scolding him lightly and you chuckle at the reminder that she’s the older twin. If only by a few minutes of course.

“Shut up Jiminie. She’ll never realise,” You gasp in outrage at her quick betrayal of you and she simply flashes you a sweet smile in response. “Not until it’s spelt out for her.”

“Do you want this salad or do you want me to add in some paprika too?” Hissing, you point the knife you’re using to cut the vegetables for the salad and resist the urge to laugh at her pouting face. Jiwon hated paprika with a passion and you knew that apples were her weakness. There was no way she was giving up this dinner.

“Wonnie, you give in too easily to her.” Jimin scowls, poking at his twin incessantly until she’s squealing with laughter and wriggling around on the couch. Frowning, you watch them both and wonder how they don’t tear or break a wing. You wouldn’t think that they were both fully functioning adults with actual jobs looking at them right now.

There are better-behaved children in the nursery.

“Be nice to her, she’s my favourite sibling for a reason.” He gets up at that, so much outrage on his face that you’d think you’d just severely insulted him or something. Though with the twins, everything was a competition and so you probably had.

“Wrong. Anyway, I’m going to be your favourite sibling now. Because I’ll give you another hint.” Standing smugly, he crosses his arms over his chest and you pause from cutting the apples that you’d bought from the fruit market just before coming home.

“Why, exactly, do you think I care? Even if I find out who it is, nothing is going to happen. Also, stop being mean to whoever it is! They probably don’t want you to tell.” His plush pink lips pout out at your resistance to his teasing and you simply go back to making dinner, ignoring the two of them as they whisper to each other.

“You see him regularly, he’s older than you and you’ve been personally acquainted with him for your whole life.” Now that gets you to pause, frowning down at your knife as you contemplate Jimin’s words. Despite what you’d just told him, you can’t deny that you’re intrigued at the possibility of someone liking you.

It had been a while since you’d gone on a date and even then, he hadn’t been from Appleseed Grove but the next hamlet over in Greenleaf. Taehyung telling you that you not only knew your admirer but saw him regularly had reduced your list. But Jimin’s hints reduced it even further.

The list was still impossibly large in your opinion, you could already list several pixies whom you’ve known personally your whole life, but still. You can almost feel the answer. Shaking your head, you tut at him and frown as you try to push the inquisitive thoughts away.

“Jimin! What did I just say?”

Almost immediately he pouts, slumping down onto the couch in a remarkable imitation of a petulant toddler. Jiwon soothes him immediately, running her fingers through his hair and you want to scowl at their innate bond. Why was she making him feel better dammit?

“Enough, both of you. Come get a plate, it’s done and then I want you two out after you’ve finished eating. And make sure you wash your plates too!”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, your little brother and Taehyung do not let the issue go. You’re convinced that they’re hatching some sort of secret matchmaking mission with you as the main star. You trust Jimin of course, but you know he’s always one to get up to mischief and the combination of Taehyung and him is potentially devastating.

Still, you try to push it out of your mind as the last thing you need is to start stressing over whoever this admirer could be. And with your younger sibling, it could truly be anyone. For all you knew, it might be the sweet old man who lost his wife a year ago and is always tending to the community garden.

A shiver runs through you as that thought passes through your head. He’s nice, but certainly not what a young pixie like you wants. You have faith at least that Jiwon wouldn’t let her brother do something as mean as that. She might find the idea amusing but she probably wouldn’t let him get into it thankfully.

Opening the door to the library, you inhale the smell of fresh books with a small smile before heading inside. You’d already finished the book you’d taken out only the other day and had eagerly come back for something else, wanting a story to whisk you away in the evenings.

It helped that Seokjin was an incredibly handsome pixie too, you wouldn’t lie. The rose pink-haired man was perhaps the perfect man to run the library as he always had his nose pushed into a book and he had an almost perfect memory of everything stocked. No matter what subject you wanted, whether fiction or nonfiction, he knew exactly what you would like to read.

He was also incredibly shy and awkward, which was why he seemed especially suited to the quiet solitude of the library. Plenty of people visited it, of course, even now you could see a mother with her two young children picking out books, but it wasn’t exactly somewhere that saw a huge amount of socialising.

You liked that though and you liked his company too. It was understandable perhaps given that you spent your daily life around small children who didn’t seem to understand that they had inside voices yet. Seokjin was like a breath of fresh air to you. A very quiet, softly spoken breath of fresh air.

If ever there was anyone in Appleseed Grove that would be the most understanding of the never-ending struggles of your little brother, it would be Kim Seokjin. How he’d managed to put up with Taehyung when he was younger was beyond you because that boy was chaos incarnate. Which was another reason why you were here; you wanted to get Seokjin’s opinion on the whole thing.

He was a font of useful knowledge and had read enough philosophy and self-help books to be able to give you correct and relevant advice. Plus, he knew all about annoying little brothers who were determined to meddle in your life. There had been a rather amusing incident a few years ago where Taehyung had set up Seokjin on a date, only it had turned out his date was double his age and thought they were just going to play nuts and stones in the park with her other elderly friends.

Needless to say, it had been embarrassing for everyone involved and you weren’t sure how Taehyung was still alive. All you knew was that Seokjin must dearly love him. Either that or Namjoon had intervened to prevent one of his brother’s murder.

You really should ask him how he restrained himself because you were positive that one day you were going to have to do the same. And you did not want to see Jiwon sad because you’d had to murder her twin brother for embarrassing you.

At first glance, you don’t see Seokjin anywhere and you sigh softly. It looks like you’re going to have to search for the pixie throughout the aisles of books. Thankfully, the library isn’t too big. It takes up all the space in an old tree stump with bookcases lining the area that are all packed full of books.

Placing the book you’ve brought back behind the front desk, you begin to search through the aisles. You’re never quite sure what Seokjin spends his time doing in the library really and when you find him, he’s just crouched in front of the romance section. Raising your eyebrow, you watch him for a moment and simply take the moment to admire him while he’s not paying attention.

Seokjin is very introverted by nature which is unfortunate because he’s quite possibly the most handsome pixie you’ve ever seen. His soft hair is ruffled today, the strands made up of a range of colours from a deep rose to the lightest cherry blossom. A beautiful golden tan to his skin, round cheeks, luscious plump lips and enigmatic brown eyes combine with tall stature and broad shoulders to make him just plain beautiful.

He doesn’t notice you admiring him given how intently he’s staring at the bindings of the books, his delicate, translucent wings shimmering as they twitch in time to whatever he’s thinking. Pursing your lips, you shake your head to push out the intrusive thoughts before heading over and crouching next to him.

“Whatcha doing?” You ask lightly, looking over the novels he’s perusing and realise they’re all historical romance novels. They’re not your kind of thing as the topic of noble fruit pixies taking pity on lowly vegetable pixies or even worse, rock pixies. Society took a while to move on and you were thankful that the age of nobility had long since passed but there were still those who sought to imagine themselves in that period.

And as someone who would’ve been of the servant class back then, you had no wish to read about being ridiculed for loving someone higher up. You didn’t know whether Seokjin was interested in it or was just contemplating how to reorganise them. The shelf didn’t look to be in any specific order and if you knew anything about him, it was that he liked his things to be neatly organised.

Still, he hadn’t been expecting you as the yell he lets out is obscenely loud in the quietness of the library. Even more than that, he falls backwards in a scene that could only be described as comical.

Chuckling, you gently reach forward to help him rearrange his wings before he gets into a cross-legged position. Pressing a hand to his chest, he takes a deep breath in before exhaling slowly with wide eyes.

“Hey! Give a guy some warning next time please!” He exclaims a small hint of a whine threading into his voice in what can only be described as a Seokjin complaint. Snorting, you roll your eyes and sit next to him as you both stare at the bookshelf quietly.

“So, was there a reason you just frightened the life out of me?” Reaching forward, he takes one of the books off the shelf before carrying on removing the rest. You help him by taking on the other side of the shelf, humming to yourself with a tongue in your cheek as you contemplate how to ask.

While you knew Seokjin well enough to feel okay asking him about this, you weren’t exactly super close. He was a little older than you and almost intimidatingly handsome. Perhaps unsurprisingly, you’d had a big crush on your little brother’s best friend's older brother when you were younger. And that was a confusing enough sentence on its own.

As a result of that relationship though, the two of you had had enough interactions over the years to be called friends. Not close friends or anything, but enough that you felt comfortable talking to him. Plus, he was an incredibly calm and stable person when he wasn’t screaming in fear.

Along with that, if anyone was going to understand how to handle Taehyung, it would be his eldest brother. Which is why you let out your breath in a long, low exhale before placing the final book on the pile.

“Did you know Taehyung has been bothering me lately?” Cringing, you realise that makes it sound like he’s annoying you. And as much as you wish he wouldn’t tease you about this whole admirer thing, he wasn’t annoying you.

“Scratch that. I made him sound bad. He’s not bothering me really, it’s just...I think Jimin and him are on one of their matchmaking crusades again. Taehyung’s been telling me for ages that I’ve got a secret admirer and I pretty much ignored him because I thought he was just making it up. Only now Jimin’s got involved and it’s someone I know and see often?” You don’t notice the way Seokjin freezes for a moment, his hand pausing over the top of the book he was about to pick up.

“Oh...really?” His voice is weirdly high for a moment before he coughs roughly, clearing whatever had caused the pitch change before it’s back to normal. “A...secret admirer? How long has he been telling you that?”

Making a face, you wave your hand aimlessly in an unsure gesture as you shrug simultaneously. “I don’t know. At least a few months I think, I haven’t been keeping track. But when I pointed out the other day that I know everyone in Appleseed Grove, both Jimin and he decided to up the ante and are starting to give me clues. So now I know it’s at least someone who I interact with and not just someone who happens to live here. Which is still a really big pool to pick from given my job.”

Sighing deeply, you stretch out one leg before moving your hands to rest on the floor behind you, holding your upper body up as you stretch. There’s a soft fluttering as your wings stretch too and you shiver slightly as they brush against Seokjin’s own, lacing his with burnished copper pixie dust. Twisting your lips, you look over to where Seokjin is sitting staring at the pile of books.

Frowning, you reach over to poke his muscular thigh playful and tilt your head when he looks up. He has an almost curious expression on his face and you give him a questioning glance. There’s no response from him for a few seconds, instead, he just seems to look over your face intently before giving you a tight smile.

“Nothing more than that? No like...name hints or jobs or anything?” Seokjin asks, looking back away from you to start rearranging the books into alphabetical authors. Watching him, you tap at your lips before sighing and shaking your head.

“No. But it’s your brother. And my brother. We know what they’re like. They’ll get me believing them and it’ll turn out to be some old guy. Or even a bird knowing Taehyung. For all I know, they’re just talking bird poop to me and there’s no one.” That gets a snort from Seokjin and you look at him in confusion.

When he realises you’re staring, he coughs awkwardly and you can’t help but smile at the way his ears burn red, a shade almost similar to the rich red of the apple he lives in. His cheeks are soon flushing too and you have to bite your lip to make sure you don’t let yourself laugh too loudly to embarrass him even more.

Still, you want to know what’s got him like that so you stay carefully quiet to let him explain himself. After a minute of silence, that’s particularly awkward, he must realise that you’re not going to let the conversation move on until you’re done. Resting his hand on the cover of the book he’s placed onto the shelf, he takes a surprisingly big breath that has your brows raising slightly.

“I’m pretty sure there’s someone. I mean...n-not that I-I know who it i-is but like...you’re so nice a-and stuff. So...I-I mean, Taehyung is probably right. D-don’t you think?” Slowly, your lips twist up into a smile as you feel suddenly shy at his sweet praise. Hearing Seokjin sound so sure that there’s someone out there who likes you makes butterflies flutter inside your stomach and you feel the small flame of hope that maybe it’s even him.

It’s ridiculous of course because Seokjin is way out of your league. Like, he’s not even in the same realm as you so there’s no point in even hoping really. He’s a fruit pixie from a long, unbroken line of fruit pixies who is also ridiculously handsome and intelligent. There’s no way he’d want to lower himself to be with you.

Still...you can’t help but have a small hope. That crush from years ago apparently never died.

“Maybe. It’s a nice thought, right? I’m not exactly the greatest catch in Appleseed though.” Now he’s the one snorting, his eyes rolling in exasperation before he lets out an expletive, pushing at your arm hard enough until you’re almost falling over.

“Don’t say that. You’re beautiful, smart and have a great job. Anyone would be honoured!” Almost as if he realises what he’s just said, his eyes go wide and his already pink cheeks redden even further. “I-I mean...w-well. Y-yeah, what I said.”

Smiling gently, you reach and take his hand, squeezing it gently in thanks before gently scooting over the pile of books on your side. Even though you’d come here to get an idea of how to handle Taehyung, you feel pretty content now given that even Seokjin thought the admirer might be real. It made you feel a little excited to know that there could be someone out there, dreaming of living a domestic life with you.

“Thanks, Seokjin, you’re too sweet. I put the book I took out behind the desk, are you okay if I take something else?” You gesture back towards the end of the aisle and miss the way Seokjin’s eyes go a little soft at you.

“Yeah, sure. That’s fine. Just...write down what you took and I’ll note it down in the lodger. And hey...just ignore Taehyung if you want. I’ve learnt that eventually, he gets bored if he gets no real reply.” He gives you a small smile, looking remarkably small for someone so big as he sits there on the floor and you give him a smile of thanks in response.

“Maybe. I was going to do that but...I mean, if it is real...maybe I should go along with it? Find out who it is. You never know, it could be my future husband or wife. I’d be silly to turn that down right? It’s a little exciting too like I’m in school again.” Giggling, you give him a bright smile before waving goodbye and heading back out.

Once you’ve left his sight, Seokjin’s shoulders deflate with the long-suffering sigh he lets out while his head flops forward. Closing his eyes, he stays that way for a moment while mentally imaging all the ways he could murder Taehyung and Jimin without their bodies ever being found. He’d read enough books to be able to pull it off, surely.

Flower stems, he hated that he’d gotten drunk that one night with them all and accidentally blurted his long-held crush for you. It was something that everyone had already figured out long ago but that night, he’d confirmed it. And of course, his little brother and his annoyance-in-arms best friend had decided to do something about it and play matchmaker.

But what was he meant to do? He couldn’t kill them now because you looked to be too invested in the mystery of it all, the romance of everything. Would you be disappointed if you found out it was him though? He knew that he was good looking but at the end of the day, he was still the shy and introverted librarian who didn’t get too involved with everyone else. Not exactly the best catch.

Glancing back to where you’d gone, he chewed on his lip slowly before taking in a deep breath. Or maybe you would be happy with the revelation. If he let it get revealed of course. Would you ever consider him as a potential future husband?

Seokjin knew that the only way to find out that was to let you find out who your admirer was. But he was suddenly struck with uncertainty at the knowledge you’d find out via Taehyung and Jimin. Surely you’d like it better if he confessed himself? It’d be better coming from him right? Or would you be angry that he hadn’t said anything when you’d sat here, talking about it so confused?

Swallowing thickly, he wondered what the right decision was. And if he’d even make that decision or make a fool out of himself for everyone else to see.

The next few weeks are busier than ever for you with the coming Harvest Festival. It was one of the biggest events in the year and saw all pixies getting involved with harvesting the communal gardens. Thanks were given to the goddess of the harvest, Alixtra, and everyone celebrated in the hopes of a bountiful harvest next year as well.

As such, you were not only coordinating where you were going to be spending the Festival but also helping the children to get involved. That involved getting them to make special banners and decorations that would be hung throughout Appleseed Grove while also teaching them the importance of the Festival.

You were also being bombarded with Taehyung and Jimin. The two mischief-makers had gotten it firmly into their heads that they simply needed to have you figure out who the admirer was and so they’d upped their game. It almost felt like you couldn’t have a single conversation with them without them mentioning it.

As much as you’d indulge them under normal circumstances however, you were a little too stressed with trying to sort everything out to truly appreciate their efforts. So the most they were doing is successfully annoying you and making you wish that you didn’t even have a secret admirer.

Honestly, it was all just becoming a little too much from them and you’d snapped more than a few times. You had more important things to be worrying about than whatever they were cooking up. And you knew that they were planning something for the Festival. There was no way they couldn’t be.

Groaning quietly, you pressed a hand to your forehead as you tried to rub away the headache that was brewing. Today had been particularly stressful with the children deciding to be completely uncooperative. You’d had to clean up so much mess along with dealing with two tantrums and three fights.

It seemed the excitement of it all was getting to them. As much as you wanted to be angry at their behaviour, which was normally excellent, you couldn’t because they were just children. Children who were being a little overwhelmed by the fact everyone was suddenly making a big deal of the Festival. If the adults were getting stressed over it, then it wasn’t surprising that the children were struggling to cope with their emotions too.

So you’d soothed the tears when some of them had gotten too upset when their painting didn’t go right and you placated frayed tempers between friends until they were hugging each other once more. The downside to being the calm person throughout it all was that you had taken on their negative emotions.

As a result, you needed to calm down and the best way to do that was to take yourself off somewhere. Which was why you were at the aviary, the home of all the birds that Taehyung helped to train. They didn’t all live there obviously, most of them lived freely and returned when called but many chose to stay in the warm, comfortable spaces made for them.

And one of those birds was Sweetsong, Taehyung’s swallow who was his pride and joy. She was, as her name implied, incredibly sweet and had a pretty birdsong when she felt like it. You had permission to take her out whenever she wasn’t being used by Taehyung as you enjoyed riding but couldn’t afford a bird. They were too expensive to maintain, unfortunately, so you simply rode Sweetsong.

You were kind of glad of it, to be honest as you loved her. Heading into the aviary, you called out her name and smiled as she chirped before fluttering down to meet you. Big, intelligent black eyes take you in for a moment before she recognises you and twitters happily, pushing her soft head against you.

Sweetsong was a typical swallow bird with indigo feathers that turned into a navy blue across her head and wings. Her breast was covered in the softest feathers of cream and white, evidently having been groomed by Taehyung recently, while the lower half of her face was a burnt orange.

“Hey girl, how are you?” You murmur to her, smiling as you stroke her face gently. She follows you out of the aviary obediently and stands quietly as you retrieve the spider silk tack that was made just for her. It’s incredibly strong and light, which is ideal given how fine-boned she was, with the underneath covered in the highest quality moss to prevent her feathers from being pulled or caught.

Looping the bridle around her head and carefully adding the saddle, you reach for a handful of grain from one of the leaf bins nearby and feed it to her while checking her over. Years of handling her meant she was content to simply wait for you and you smiled, nodding happily as you accepted she was okay.

“Okay Sweetsong, let’s go for a fly, hm?” Whispering to her, you kiss her beak before moving to the saddle. Pushing with your wings, you landed with grace and positioned yourself as you’d been taught when you were younger. Almost immediately, Sweetsong changes position and you feel her becoming more alert and ready.

Clicking your tongue quietly at her, she tilts her head in response before spreading her magnificent wings. You only get a moment to admire them though before she’s pushing off, the sound loud against the quietness of the evening and soon enough, you’re both rushing through the air as she moves faster.

Grinning broadly, you hold onto the reins and lean in so that the air doesn’t hurt as much, letting your wings find their perfect position so they’re not uncomfortable while flying. While pixies were perfectly capable of flying and did often, it was tiring to fly long distances. Which was why different birds were trained, allowing them to carry you when you wouldn’t be able to.

Rising higher and higher into the sky, you both cleared the forest with ease. Taking in a deep breath of cold, fresh air, you sit upright as Sweetsong finds an air current and begins to glide along with it. She chirps happily, singing a song to her wild free who flutter out of the treetops as well.

The forest is far below you now, the green tops of them a never-ending sight as they extend out towards the horizon in all directions. Almost sensually they move, flowing together as the wind rushes through them and you’re reminded of the rushing river close to Appleseed. It’s far stronger than the simple creek that slithers through the Grove but the movement of the canopy reminds you of it for a moment.

Closing your eyes, you take a deep breath and simply enjoy how relaxing it feels to be so high. There are no worries up here, no stress or anxiety. No secret admirers or annoying little brothers. It’s just you and Sweetsong with the final rays of the sun painting a striking image across the sky in pinks, oranges, purples and yellows.

This was exactly what you needed after the day you’d had. After the month you’ve had really. It was just...relaxing to have nothing to concern yourself about for an hour or so. Sweetsong flew steadily for you and the day was ending beautifully, making you positive that you’d made the right decision to take her out.

“Ah girl, what am I gonna do?” You sighed out, reaching forward to stroke the silky soft feathers of the swallow’s head. What you were asking that question about exactly, you weren’t sure. A lot of things were uncertain lately and you just didn’t know how to handle it all. Still, it felt nice to just ignore civilization for a while and instead just fly.

So that’s what you do for the next hour. The two of swooping and soaring through the air, travelling a good distance before heading back home. You can tell that Sweetsong is happy to just be able to fly how she wants given the cute noises she makes the whole time and you can’t help but laugh at them. Despite Taehyung being an annoyance for you lately, you wouldn’t deny that he’d done a good job with training her.

His pride and joy.

Appleseed Grove isn’t visible from the air at first, not unless you have a hawk’s vision. But the lower Sweetsong gets, the better you get to see your home. The small oil lamps have been lit for the night, giving the Grove a warm and cosy look while you see a few stragglers who are out enjoying the last of the evening light.

All around the Grove is a range of fruits, nuts and vegetables that are home to so many pixies. Single pixies and whole families of them arranged neatly in whatever magic is inherent to you all. A few tree trunks are hollowed out for social needs such as the school but otherwise, it’s a burst of pretty colours that blend.

Landing at the aviary, you quickly get off Sweetsong and set about getting her ready for the night. The bridle and saddle are removed while you quickly go and get the feather shine Taehyung had developed long ago. Running it along her feathers gently, you smiled at her pleased and content noises and kissed her beak once more.

Once she is ready to go back in for sleep, you walk in with her and give her a nightly feed. When Taehyung had agreed to let you take her out whenever you’d also agreed to care for her when you came back. That meant grooming her once finished and feeding her, along with cleaning her tack.

Which is why once you’ve got her all settled, you sit down on one of the small seats made from a broken branch to begin cleaning. The spider silk bridle is so light and dainty in your hands, yet you know it’s near enough impossible to break. Still, it can get dirty quite easily and the moss has to be cared for to make sure it doesn’t go bad.

“Y/N?” Your name is called makes you jump in surprise, the sound loud and unexpected in the quietness of the aviary. Looking around at the entrance with wide eyes, you frown for a moment in confusion at the sight of Seokjin before giving him a friendly smile.

“Hey Seokjin, how are you?” You ask politely, watching as he moves inside from the doorway. He’s playing with his hands, fingers pushing and rubbing against each other and you frown as you realise that he’s nervous for some reason. Although it was Seokjin and he wasn’t exactly famed for having an outgoing disposition.

“Hi, I’m err...I’m good. Yeah, good.” Tilting your head at him, your eyes narrow as you wonder what’s so wrong. He sounds like something’s wrong and you go to get up, unsure if you’re needed for something. Although what help you could be, you didn’t know.

“N-no, don’t get up. It’s okay. I just...I mean...I have something to tell you. Myself. Before others tell you. I just…” He swallows, his face paler than usual and you watch intently as he wipes at his brow with shaking hands. “I want you to hear it from me. And I’m sorry that I haven’t told you before now. But…it’s just...it’s you.”

Raising an eyebrow at him, you wonder what he’s talking about as he’s making no sense to you. Who was going to tell you something? And what did he need you to know so desperately? You only really saw him when you went to the library so you couldn’t think of anything hugely important. Unless you’d forgotten to take a book back or something.

“I-I like you. It’s me. Your secret admirer. It’s, well, it’s me. I err, I don’t remember when it started or anything b-but it was a long time ago. I just...y-you’re so pretty and outgoing. I never knew h-how to talk to you properly like that. And I didn’t think that you’d like me like that either. But then you said that about Taehyung and Jimin and I panicked because what if you found out from them and not from me?” He continues to babble for a few minutes but all you can focus on is two immediate facts.

Firstly, he likes you. As in...romantically likes you. All those crushes you’d had as a teenager immediately come rushing to fore as you try to understand the fact that Kim Seokjin, the incredibly handsome and intelligent Kim Seokjin who was way out of your realm, liked you. This must be a dream or something.

The only explanation.

Secondly, he was your secret admirer? That gets the biggest frown from you as you try to comprehend it. Taehyung and Jimin had been pretty clumsy with their hints obviously, but they were right in the hints they had given you. You did know him well and you did interact with him frequently.

Plus, the fact that Seokjin was Taehyung’s older brother and Jimin was Taehyung’s best friend...it all made sense. Though why they’d started their crusade to get you together, you weren’t entirely sure. You were positive that you hadn’t given any hint to the fact that you could potentially like Seokjin.

Pushing those thoughts out of your head though, you decide that the most important concern right now is to make sure that the fruit pixie doesn’t give himself a heart attack. Which looks a distinct possibility given how stressed he’s looking right now.

Giving him a gentle smile, you reach out and take one of his shaking hands and invite him to sit next to you. The way he almost falls onto the seat has you biting your lip to stop yourself from laughing though it’s not helped by the way his eyes are so wide, almost like he’s seen a ghost or something.

“Hey, hey, Seokjin. Please...just calm down. It’s okay. I’m not going to be mean or anything. Just...take a breath and explain it to me properly. You’re my admirer? You like me?” The way your lips curl up into a smile as you say those words is mirrored by the warm and fuzzy feeling in your stomach.

Seokjin pauses, body stilling completely for a second as he acknowledges what you’ve said before nodding slowly. He’s not looking at you now, instead focusing firmly on the ground before him. Licking at your lips, you wonder how to handle this and it goes quiet for a few moments.

“Wow, teenage me would be dying of excitement right now,” You tease him lightly, pushing at his shoulder with your own as you grin at his surprise. “And I’ll be honest...adult me is pretty happy with this news too. You like me? A vegetable pixie?”

That gets a snort of derision from him and you almost sigh in relief at how his annoyance with the intricacies of the pixie social hierarchy is stronger than his nerves. Leaning into him a little, you inhale deeply and smile at the sweet scent he gives off.

“I don’t care about that! Who cares?! It means nothing other than your magic chose that to manifest in. Some of the smartest pixies in history weren’t fruit pixies so why does it matter? I mean, you teach the future of our society in school and…” He carries on with his rant, his strong brows furrowed inwards as he gesticulated wildly to go along with his anger.

It makes you feel a little warm at how he repudiates the societal expectations that you’d both grown up with. Pursing your lips, you let him finally finish before he takes a deep breath to steady himself. Then he looks directly at you, those beautiful and emotive mahogany eyes feeling like they’re staring deep into you.

“I like you Y/N. I-I’ve never dared to say it before because I didn’t think you’d like me back. I’m nothing like you and I know that. But I was with some friends one night and we got to drinking honey sugar so I was a little drunk and...yeah. That’s where Taehyung and Jimin found out about my feelings. I don’t know if I was going to get the courage to tell you but when you told me what they were doing...I couldn’t let you find out that way. Nor did I want to get blindsided by their scheming. If you want to reject me then…I-I’d rather you do it in private than whatever they’re planning.” He finished, round cheeks flushing a red that makes him look rather sweet while his eyes almost seem to shine in the low light.

You don’t respond for a minute, simply looking him over carefully and you note the way his broad shoulders seem to slump at what he probably thinks is a rejection. In reality, though, you’re just admiring how brave and bold he was to come to you and tell you this. Tell you his feelings that he was planning to keep to himself because he thought there was no chance.

All this, so you didn’t get hurt or upset at finding out who your admirer was. There was some selfish nature too as he didn’t want to get rejected in a public setting but still. You could only imagine how difficult it was to put yourself and your feelings out here like this while having no idea what the potential outcome could be.

Reaching for his hand, you take it and gently squeeze it reassuringly. He looks down and swallows hard when you manoeuvre your hands until your fingers are laced together. Lip quirking, you note how natural it looks to have them like that before you glance back up at him.

“I’m not going to lie, Seokjin. I didn’t exactly expect it to be you. I mean, I thought it would be nice but I thought that you were way out of my league and that I had no chance. So to find out that it’s you? I mean...I can’t think of anyone who I’d rather it be now. More So because you found the courage to tell me without letting me get suckered into whatever our brothers were planning. I appreciate that I do.” Pausing, you run your finger along the back of his hand and trace the veins and tendons there.

Seokjin doesn’t respond, instead just letting you explore while you get your thoughts together. You wanted to make sure that you did this right because you certainly were not planning on letting Seokjin walk out of here with a broken heart.

“I’m happy it’s you. And I can’t say that I feel exactly the same, but I know that I want more with you now. If you’ll accept it and accept me?” Once more, Seokjin’s eyes widen to the point that you’re almost surprised they don’t fall out. His wings twitch and vibrate almost intensely behind him, rose pink pixie dust fluttering to the ground as his nerves get the best of his control.

“Really?” Is all he blurts out, his plump lips forming an ‘o’ shape of surprise and you snort with laughter as you nod. Poking at them gently, you then let your fingers trace lightly over the smooth and silky soft skin of his cheek until you’re cupping it.

“Really. I’d be an idiot to say no to this offer! You’re quiet and shy, yes, but I love that about you. You’re also so intelligent and kind and funny. Always willing to put a smile on everyone’s face, even if it’s at the expense of yourself. There’s no way I’m going to turn you down, Mr Kim. So the question is...do you want this to become a relationship? An actual, romantic relationship with no interference from our brothers?” He’s silent for a moment, simply staring at you in what looks like awe.

It makes you wriggle in your seat, the spider silk bridle still carefully in your lap while the gentle sounds of the sleeping birds above you both form a piece of natural background music. Finally, though, you see his shocked face turn into one of pure happiness as his eyes practically light up with excitement, his cheeks rising as the smile on his face grows so broad.

“Yes! Definitely, of course. I mean...are you serious?” Giggling, you nod as he continues to stutter out questions to you. Squeezing his hand once more, you grin broadly as he almost floats off the seat in pure exhilaration, his wings releasing so much pixie dust that you can see it glittering in front of you as it floats on the gentle breeze.

“One thing though,” You say, causing him to pause with dread seeping into his expression. “We are going to get our own back on our brothers.”

The Harvest Festival always began early in the morning, when the first rays of sun began to lighten the sky and the birds sang their first notes for the day. For as long as there was natural light, pixies from all over Appleseed Grove would work together to harvest the crops before celebrating during the night.

It was your favourite time of the year. You were able to see the fruits and vegetables that had been carefully grown over the summer months and know that the winter was going to be easy this year. A year with a bad harvest meant that winter was a struggle, and no one wanted that.

But so far today, you've helped to harvest the strawberry fields. A few strawberries had left your basket and made their way into your mouth, their succulent bodies were ripe with juice and bursting with a sweet flavour. It was customary for pixies to indulge in some of the harvests, as long as it wasn’t going to impact on the overall crop.

You’d already filled six baskets with the luscious red fruit, the pile of strawberries being carefully placed by more volunteers into boxes. These volunteers had the most magic in the Grove, and they used that magic to seal the boxes. This meant the contents remained in an almost frozen manner, staying fresh for the coming months instead of rotting away.

No one knew how it worked really, nor did anyone know how they did it. It was just something instinctive that they did. You knew because you’d asked Taehyung one year. His family was rich in magic and they were always part of the sealers. He hadn’t been able to give you an answer as he didn’t know how he did it, just that it happened without conscious thought.

Through a little subtle influence, you’d managed to make it so that Seokjin was one of the sealers at the strawberry fields today. No one knew that you were together yet. It had been two weeks since you had agreed to start a relationship. Two weeks that had been almost dreamlike for you.

You visited his home after dark, feeling like you were breaking the rules or something, and enjoyed his company throughout the evening. Sometimes it was just making dinner today, feeling very domestic, other times it was reading against each other in silence. There had been a few incidents where the two of you had gotten a little more...involved than you’d anticipated, resulting in you having to rush out of his home in the early morning in the hopes you could get back to your home and change your clothes.

It was all very exciting and exhilarating, made even better by the fact that you loved to see the warm smile of happiness that spread whenever he looked at you. If you’d thought he was handsome before, then it was nothing compared to now when you could have him however you wanted him.

You were pretty sure you were fast on the track to loving this pixie.

The only reason you were both remaining quiet about your relationship was so that your little brothers wouldn’t find out too early. You’d been entirely serious when you’d told Seokjin that you wanted to get back at them. They had far too much fun pranking people and you felt it was time that they got a dose of their own medicine.

Seokjin had just fully agreed, laughing at the thought of outsmarting Taehyung for once. And he’d loved your plan as well. The both of you were going to have to be impeccable actors tonight.

For now though, you’d had to just settle with subtle touches of each other whenever you’d passed, a hand running along his back or arm or a gentle squeeze of your arm when you handed him another basket of strawberries. The smiles between you both were perhaps a little softer than one might expect, your eyes a little more loved up but no one was looking too closely.

It felt nice though, to have someone to smile and laugh with. You just couldn’t wait until it was finally out in the open, even if Seokjin was a little nervous about how people would react. For you, you didn’t care about the general population’s opinion. It was the parents that worried you a little.

Oh, your parents would be ecstatic at you getting into a relationship with one of the most eligible pixies in Appleseed. It was a step up for you, going straight from vegetable to fruit and Seokjin’s family were well respected. But you were worried about how they would react to you. For Seokjin, they would probably view it as him lowering himself.

You had hope though because Seokjin had made it abundantly clear that he didn’t care about anyone else’s views in regards to that. He liked you as you were and he’d told you many times over the last two weeks that he had never wanted anyone else. Which was always surprising to hear, but it warmed your stomach still.

Now though, the light in the sky was beginning to wane as nature painted it in streaks of oranges, yellows and reds while the sun began to set. The lanterns around the Grove were being lit and the bubbling sense of excitement seeped into the atmosphere.

You’d finished picking only around half an hour ago, the strawberry fields officially empty of any of the fruit. The boxes were all sealed and had been moved to the communal storage where they would remain until they were needed. Many other pixies sat around as well, chattering with each other as they waited for the final signal.

Seokjin was sitting next to you, tiredness etched into his face as he blinked blearily and you snorted, reaching over to push at him slightly.

“What are you so tired for? You weren’t walking the fields and picking!” Teasing him, you grin as he pulls a face and lets out an outraged yell. It gets a few looks from others but they just turn away with a smile, used to the way Seokjin was the loudest quiet person they’d ever known.

“Hey! I’ve been busy too. I just...I’m not used to all this manual labour stuff, you know? Or socialising this much. I work in a library for a reason.” He states plainly, his face carefully blank and you can’t help but snort in amusement. Perhaps it was different for you. Being a teacher meant that you spent most of your day on your feet, running around after children and picking up their stuff.

Shaking your head slightly, you can’t help but lean against him and enjoy the warmth he’s giving off. The nights are slowly beginning to get colder and you’re already not looking forward to the coldness of winter. Frost and ice were not friendly to a tiny pixie and you shuddered at the thought of it already.

The fear of your wings freezing and breaking was something that began in childhood and never quite left.

Remaining quiet for a few minutes, you found yourself almost dozing off on Seokjin’s shoulder. The hard work you’d done throughout the day was combined with how comfortable and safe you felt with him, his now-familiar scent soothing you and lulling you to sleep.

The sudden ringing of a bell throughout Appleseed Grove, the sound echoing off the trunks of the giant trees surrounding you, causes you to jerk upright. Eyes wide, you almost don’t hear the way Seokjin laughs as you realise your wings are fluttering in fright. Glancing behind, you grimace at the sight of the glittering pixie dust left from your wings, orange dust shimmering in the light.

“Finally!” You exhale, standing up and stretching with a tiny groan. A warm hand resting on your suddenly exposed stomach makes you grunt, shrinking back down and looking at Seokjin with wide eyes. He simply grins and shrugs, gesturing to the fact that almost everyone had practically sprinted off anyway.

“No one’s looking, it’s okay. Come on then, sweetpea. Let’s go enjoy the evening!” Seokjin doesn’t take your hand to lead you down to the centre of the Grove, instead resting his own on the small of your back and gently guiding you there. Smiling at him, you take a moment to quickly kiss his cheek while you have the chance before eagerly rushing past the now barren fields.

The bell signalled that the harvest was complete and stored away for winter. It also meant that the partying could begin, with everyone making their way back to the hamlet and getting ready to celebrate through the night and give thanks to Alixtra for what she had blessed you all with.

“I’ll see you soon, okay?” You say to Seokjin once you reach the first homes, looking up at him and giving him a bright smile as he nods. He doesn’t kiss you, but his hand lingers on your back before you go. You’re not sure what he’s going to do, for now, perhaps go and pay his respects to Alixtra at the Harvest Shrine.

But you’re on a mission as you have a specific job to do now.

Searching through the Grove, you eventually manage to round up your entire class and have them all gathered around you. The children have spent the day running through the various fields and playing, encouraging their parents and the other adults to work well while enjoying themselves. Now they all stand before you, looking suitably tired yet excited.

Children did not participate in the harvest itself, but they did have an important role to play during the Festival. Alongside helping you decorate and creating a suitably atmospheric mood for Appleseed Grove, they were also the ones who would make offerings to Alixtra for a good bounty next year as well.

Each child had a fruit or vegetable that had been picked today, the biggest and best of each crop held tightly in their small hands. Smiling at them all as you counted them, you crouched down and brought them all in closer.

“Okay everyone, we’re going to do this just like we practiced, remember?” They all nod at you seriously, their faces carefully restrained while their eyes gleamed with repressed emotion. “Good, come on then. Everyone’s waiting!”

Walking through the crowd of pixies that surrounded the Harvest Shrine, you smiled at them all in turn as they gave way to you and your little procession. Cooing and soft murmurs of joy rippled through them as they took in the sight of the tiny children and their big harvest, each small face full of concentration that made them look even more adorable.

Reaching the Harvest Shrine, you bowed your head reverently to the carving of Alixtra before gesturing to the children. Each one came forward and placed their harvest onto the wooden altar, bowing their head as you’d taught them before taking a step back. This continued on until everyone was done and the shrine was filled.

Looking them over as they stood in a straight line, their hands all linked together as you’d taught them, you grin before nodding your head to let them know they could finish.

“Thank you Alixtra for this harvest. Please accept our labour and bless us for next year.” The words were carefully monotonous as each child tried hard to remember what they’d learnt. You bite your lip to prevent the smile that wants to leave as some of them mess up their words but overall, it’s good and you feel unbelievable pride at them all.

Once done, they look at you and burst into grins and cheers of excitement as you nod your head in satisfaction at them. Laughing finally, you crouch and accept all their hugs before watching as they rush off to find their parents. The noise level increases exponentially as everyone begins to celebrate finally. There are no more rituals to perform, just excitement and fun to be had.

Looking around the Grove, you take in everything for a second with a smile. The lanterns give everything a warm, friendly atmosphere as they bring an orange glow to the bark of the surrounding trees. Festive bunting strung from house to house and tree to tree flutter gently in the soft breeze. The scent of honey glazed pine nuts and hazelnut crusted apple slices dances through the air lazily, causing your stomach to rumble in anticipation.

The familiar outline of your younger brother catches your attention though, his sweet laugh reaching your ears as he hands Jiwon a strawprise. It was a terrible name that had been coined long ago by a travelling pixie who had introduced it to Appleseed Grove. Half a strawberry coated in a sticky honey glaze and grilled before being coated in orange peel. It was delicious and a favourite snack to enjoy when the weather was warm.

You’re not surprised to see your siblings together. They are twins after all. What’s even less of a surprise is the way Jimin’s eyes light up when he spots you, his smile growing even bigger and brighter.

Sighing deeply, you steel yourself as you realise this is going to be the moment. The moment that Jimin and Taehyung have been working towards. When they would finally reveal to you who your secret admirer was.

What they didn’t know though, was that Seokjin and you had been working on your own plan to ruin their own. Whether or not you’d manage to pull it off was an entirely different story. It all depended on if you could both act it out properly without hurting each other or anything.

You’d find out soon enough though. Jimin was herding Jiwon towards you and it was only when they started moving that you realised Seokjin and Taehyung had been there too, hidden by the pixies waiting to be served. Neither of them had noticed you yet, both talking to each other intently while nibbling on their snacks.

Scanning over Seokjin, your stomach flipped at the sight of him. He was beyond handsome, entering the realm of ethereal. How you’d ended up being the one to gain his affection was still a mystery. He made a striking figure against everyone else around him, his height equal to Taehyung’s but towering over your smaller siblings.

While you’d been busy with the children, he must have slipped off to clean up after harvesting as his broad shoulders were highlighted by the white, silk shirt he wore. A lean waist tapered into his dark brown trousers, showing off his long legs which ended in the elegant leather boots. But you mainly focused on his face, admiring how nature had been so kind and generous to him.

His peony pink lips were plush and plump, glistening from the sticky glaze of the maple treat he was eating and you knew from experience that they were just as soft as they looked. Pink hair looked almost artfully styled on top of his head, making his tan skin even richer in the low lights while his eyes were creased in happiness as he laughed at something Taehyung said.

You loved Seokjin’s eyes. Even before you’d started dating, you’d always thought he had the sweetest eyes. Gentle and kind yet intense as well, the long dark lashes that surrounded them giving him an even more dramatic look. Yes, nature had fallen in love with Seokjin and you couldn’t blame her.

When combined with his patient, kind and inquisitive nature, it was impossible to not fall in love with him.

Which was a thought for another day, as even you knew that it was far too soon to be thinking such big thoughts like that. Still, your wings fluttered in anticipation at the sight of him as you hoped they wouldn’t betray the fact you were happy. It wouldn’t do to let Jimin and Taehyung achieve their little goal.

It’s not long before they’re greeting you, joy-filled on all their faces and beating out the exhaustion of all the work from today. You’re careful to act very politely with Seokjin, hoping you two aren’t letting on that you’re a little closer than your siblings might realise. As far as they were aware, you two were only acquainted and didn’t particularly consider each other friends.

“You’re free for the night now, right?” Jimin asks, slinging his arm around your shoulders before squeezing tightly. Cringing from the tight embrace, you poke at his side until he’s yelping and pulling away with a pout before holding out the strawprise he’d brought over for you.

“Thank you. And yeah, I’m all done now. Everyone else finished?” You didn’t think anyone else had any other jobs to do tonight but you weren’t entirely sure given how busy you’d been arranging your own time. Everyone shakes their head, including Seokjin, and you smile at them all happily.

“Great, then we can all just enjoy the night. Did you all have a good day?” The five of you move off to find an empty spot of grass, close enough to the festivities to be able to see, hear and smell everything but far enough that you can all hear each other without having to shout. Fluttering your wings slightly, you shift until you’re comfortable with them before realising that Taehyung and Jimin had moved around until Seokjin was sitting next to you.

It took a surprising amount of effort on your behalf to not reach out and touch him, especially when he’d placed his hand so close to yours on the ground. From this angle, he almost glowed in the gentle lights and you wanted to just rest your chin on your knees and watch him, fascinated with how quickly you’d fallen for him.

A sudden tickling sensation against your highly sensitive wings has you stiffening with wide eyes, glancing behind quickly to spot Seokjin’s translucent wing resting against your own softly. Twinkles of pink dust mixed with your burnt orange to create a beautiful image and you bit your lip as you turned back around, pleased with the subtle physical affection he was giving you.

Your wings were the most sensitive part of you with each pixie taking plenty of care to look after them. They weren’t as fragile as they looked, but it was considered especially rude to touch another’s wings on purpose. That social norm changed when you were in a relationship though and it was considered more intimate.

No one could see what Seokjin had done, but it made your stomach feel warm and tingly. Hiding your smile behind the strawprise that you eat slowly, you listen to Jiwon and Jimin start to argue over who had picked the most blackberries today. They’d both been based in that field and as usual, it had turned into a competition.

The argument certainly wasn’t helped by Taehyung making inputs now and then, grinning when both twins glared at him for ruining their point. Finishing your snack, you sighed and shook your head at all three of the younger siblings.

“I swear, is it impossible for you three to be around without it devolving into bickering? I see fewer arguments from the children I teach than from you all.” Jimin sticks his tongue at you in what was a very mature move while Jiwon scrunches her face up. Chuckling at them both, you glance over at Seokjin with a raised brow.

“Hey, don’t look at me! Taehyung and I don’t fight all that often.” He says with a laugh, holding his hands up almost like he’s trying to protect himself. That gets a snort from Jimin who looks at the fruit pixie next to you sardonically.

“Please, you live to bicker with Tae! And that’s nothing compared to when you’re around Jungkook. The three of you together are even worse than Jiwon and me.” Seokjin’s ears turn a delightful shade of red at Jimin’s accusation and he splutters as he tries to reject it. Giggling, you reach out and brush the hair from his forehead affectionately before letting your fingers trail to his now hot ears.

“Are you serious?” Taehyung suddenly shouts, causing you to jump in surprise and look at him with wide eyes. Your expression quickly morphs from one of a shock to confusion given the dual looks of surprise mixed with consternation on both Jimin and him.

And then you realise what you’d just done. The overly affectionate physical affection you’d just given Seokjin in a very public environment when you weren’t an overly affectionate person in general. On top of that, Seokjin had accepted your touch without complaint and without flinching away, something he would have never done before you’d started a relationship.

“Oh, apple trees.” You curse, pressing the palm of your hand to your face as you realise that instead of Seokjin and you ruining their plan, instead, you’d ruined your plan to ruin their plan. All because you can’t keep your hands off the handsome pixie next to you.

The quiet sigh from your right lets you know that Seokjin has realised that the game is up too. Thankfully though, he doesn’t appear to be too bothered by it. Instead, he just takes the opportunity to take your hand, lacing his fingers with yours and giving you the softest smile that makes his eyes shine with happiness.

“You two are together?” Jimin asks, his eyes wide as they dart from Seokjin’s face to yours then to your hands and back again. It almost makes you laugh at how surprised he looks and you realise that you at least got some victory in that they didn’t get to do whatever they were planning. Maybe this was the better result anyway.

“Yes. We did want to let you two go ahead with whatever you were going to plan tonight and then ruin it all for you to make up for all the times that you’ve annoyed us but that hasn’t worked.” Sighing, you shuffle a little closer to Seokjin before resting your head on one of his delightfully broad shoulders. He smells just as good as he had this morning and you wish that it was just you two, enjoying each other’s company alone amidst the revelry from everyone.

“Wha...when...when did this happen?” Now it’s Taehyung’s turn to have that outraged tone to his voice, which makes you feel a little better really. As much as you liked him, it was nice to finally have the upper hand this time.

“A few weeks ago. I’d gone to the library to take a book back and talked to Seokjin, telling him about you two and my ‘secret admirer’. Obviously, my ‘secret admirer’ was worried about what you were going to do so came and confessed before you could embarrass him. Or me.” Glancing up at Seokjin, you note his ears are going red again and smile softly, leaning to press a kiss to his cheek.

“We wouldn’t have embarrassed you…” Your younger brother trails off but his awkward expression catches him out, letting you know that they were probably planning exactly that. It’s made even worse by the way Jiwon snorts and rolls her eyes, pushing at Jimin’s shoulder hard.

“Liar, I’ve heard you two. I’m glad you spoiled it,” She grins at you before clapping her hands together in excitement, pure happiness shining from her as she looks you both over. “You’re so cute together!”

Now it’s your turn to feel shy and you press your face into Seokjin’s shirt, causing his chest to rumble as he laughs quietly. Letting go of your hand, he wraps his arm around your waist while carefully avoiding your wings, gently stroking your side in reassurance.

“Wonnie! Why do you always give up so easily?” Jimin pouts, his lower lip pushing out further than you’ve seen it lately while his eyes go wide and glassy at her. It has zero effect on his twin sister though who just sighs heavily before pushing him hard enough to have him falling over.

“I don’t give up easily, I just know when to not make a fool of myself.” She points out, crossing her arms and ignoring her brother’s attempts to get back in her good books. Taehyung doesn’t even try, just looking both Seokjin and you over carefully before sighing and nodding slowly.

“Okay, you ruined our plans. But it doesn’t matter anyway. You’ve done what I wanted, which is you started my big bro!” Now he’s giving you that trademark boxy smile, his excitement almost palpable as he wiggles in place. Watching him with a raised brow, you look up at Seokjin for potential advice but he just shrugs, obviously used to Taehyung’s changing moods.

“You’re not...mad?”

“Of course I’m not! I kept hinting it because I wanted you to date him. I know I can be annoying but I’m not cruel. I knew Seokjinnie had a big crush on you and he’d be good for you. So I don’t care that our plan failed because I still achieved my goal. Now you just gotta marry.” That has Seokjin spluttering, coughing up the honey water he’d been sipping at carefully until you’re patting his back in amusement.

“Steady, steady.” You murmur to him, trying not to laugh at the aghast way he looks at Taehyung. Eyes flickering over to Jimin, you watch as your own younger brother gets that look in his eyes that says he’s already planning mischief and you sigh deeply.

“You two are having nothing to do with any potential future engagement, do you hear me? Let us be for a while!” You curse at them both, shaking your fist and making Jiwon chuckle. Looking at her, she holds her hands up to placate you while shaking her head.

“Hey! I’m not getting involved in this so don’t get mad at me!” She pleads and you look away from her, lifting a brow as you look from Taehyung to Jimin carefully. Neither of them says anything but you note with a sinking feeling that they’ve both got those carefully neutral expressions painted on their faces.

The expressions that say they’re going to get up to something.

Almost immediately you stand, pulling Seokjin up with almost pure strength while you point at the two mischief-makers with narrowed eyes. “Don’t even think about it. Let us just enjoy the fact that we’re together, do you understand? And don’t you dare pressure Seokjin into anything!”

Grabbing Seokjin’s hand, you quickly walk away through the crowd before you can hear either of their protestations that they wouldn’t even think of doing such a thing. Seokjin doesn’t say anything either, just letting you lead him between people while you both ignore the fact that your obvious closeness was making subtle waves throughout.

Everyone knew everyone in Appleseed after all, so it wasn’t surprising that people noted your newfound affection towards the librarian. Thankfully though, no one was too inclined to say anything and just let you both go until you were on the other side of the grove, close to the aviary.

The soft cooing of the birds as they settled down for the night complemented the now subdued noises from the festival, letting you both feel like you were still part of everything while giving you both your own space. Leaning back against the fence, you carefully shift your wings over the top until they’re resting carefully before letting out a deep sigh that quickly evolves into a groan.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Seokjin cuts you off with a fingertip to your lips, an equally gentle smile on his own as he looks down at you fondly. The lighting isn’t as great here but he still looks beautiful.

“It’s okay Honestly, I’m not the best actor so I wasn’t looking forward to trying to keep a straight face. I’m glad we just got it out there.” His voice is calm and you can tell he’s genuinely not upset at you ruining the plan, perhaps even relieved that you can now both just be together without any of the cloak and dagger behaviour you’ve both been doing.

Although it has been fun to feel young again when you slunk around like you were trying to avoid your parents.

“Yeah...me too. Now we can just...be together. Normally and in the open.” You grin up at him before wrapping your arms around his waist, enjoying the way he feels so solid beneath your hands. Resting your chin on his chest, you close your eyes and simply take in a deep breath, enjoying how peaceful and calm everything seems to be at this moment. How much you just enjoy being around Seokjin, something you hadn’t even realised until you’d started dating.

“You’re happy, right?” Seokjin asks quietly, resting his cheek on your head while his arms come to embrace you around your shoulders. Nodding against him, you give him an affirmative noise as well, unwilling to ruin the moment.

You don’t need him to tell you that he feels the same. The way his arms tighten around you and the soft kiss he presses to your forehead lets you know, causing you to smile as you simply enjoy the moment while the rest of Appleseed Grove celebrates around you.

Despite the annoyance you’d felt at both Taehyung and Jimin only a few months ago with their secret admirer nonsense, you owed them for the fact that Seokjin had finally gotten the courage to tell you his true feelings. Not that you’d ever let them know that of course. But most of all, you were just thankful that Seokjin had decided to come forward.

You may have only been with him for a few weeks now, but you already couldn’t imagine your life without the beautiful fruit pixie in it anymore.

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